Friday, Dec. 20, 1996
Updated at 11:45 a.m. Friday
Clinton taps Federico Pena for Energy Secretary post
Federico Pena, the outgoing Transportation Secretary, has been selected by President Clinton to be the next Secretary of Energy. The president announced his choice today at a press conference. Pena, 49, is a former Denver mayor and member of the Colorado House of Representatives.
Pete Lyons heading to Washington, D.C.
The Laboratory is loaning Lyons, director of the Industrial Partnership Programs office, as a scientific and technology adviser to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
Lyons will work for Domenici for one to two years and provide advice on technical issues considered by the Congress in its upcoming session. The temporary appointment is effective immediately.
"His expertise in technology transfer, defense, energy and the environment would make him a strong supplement to the capabilities of my staff," Domenici wrote in a letter requesting Lyons' services. "I look forward to utilizing his experience to assist me in my responsibilities to New Mexico and the nation."
Laboratory Director Sig Hecker on Thursday afternoon joined Lyons in telling IPP staff about the appointment.
During Lyons' absence, his deputy Charryl Berger will serve as acting director of Industrial Partnership Programs.
"I am tremendously excited by this opportunity to join Senator Domenici in this advisory capacity," Lyons told his staff. "It's a wonderful way to use and build on the great experiences I've enjoyed around the Laboratory."
Lyons, a 27-year Los Alamos veteran, has led IPP since 1993. Prior to that, he was deputy associate director for Energy and Environment, deputy associate director for Defense Research and Applications, program director for Nuclear Defense Research and group leader for Fast Transient Plasma Diagnostics.
He has published more than 100 papers in such areas as X-ray calibration systems, detection systems, high-speed measurement and data transmission and fiber optic technologies. He holds three patents and has chaired many national and international scientific conferences. He served for five years as chairman of the NATO Nuclear Efforts Task Group.
Lyons' major research interests have been on the diagnostics of nuclear tests, inertial confinement fusion and other high-density plasmas.
He served for 16 years on the Los Alamos School Board and six years on the advisory board for the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos Branch.
When it comes to detecting meteors, Los Alamos researcher is all ears
Chicken Little might have liked Laboratory researcher Doug ReVelle,
a guy who keeps an "ear" to the sky listening for falling objects
that travel many times faster than the speed of sound.
And each year at least one fairly large extraterrestrial object comes rumbling into Earth's atmosphere, said ReVelle, who presented information about using very low-frequency sound waves to detect meteors Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
ReVelle and colleagues Rod Whitaker, Tom Armstrong and Paul Mutschlecner work in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty International Monitoring System infrasound program in the Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) Division.
Using data from Laboratory listening stations originally set up to monitor underground nuclear explosions, ReVelle, a meteorologist in Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (EES-8), hears the infrasonic signature created when meteors enter the atmosphere -- even if no one is around to see them. The Lab stations, around since 1983, still are enlisted in the nation's nuclear non-proliferation efforts, but have provided a way for scientists to gain insight into the proliferation of bolides, larger-than-average space debris that slams into Earth's atmosphere and creates brilliant fireballs in the sky.
"Each year, we see at least one object entering the atmosphere that's about six meters in diameter," he said. "These make an infrasonic signal similar to what you'd see from a 15-kiloton explosion, an explosion of 15,000 tons of TNT, depending on the object's velocity and density. And each year we see around 10 objects entering the atmosphere that are equivalent to a one-kiloton blast -- or about two meters in diameter."
ReVelle often speaks of meteor size in terms of explosive yield because meteors and nuclear tests have something in common: Each creates a sound/pressure wave in the atmosphere that can be "heard."
"Infrasonic waves are very low frequency sounds that exist somewhere in the realm between hearing and meteorology," ReVelle said. "These sounds are well below the range of human hearing, which ends at about 30 Hertz, but actually can be detected as small changes in atmospheric pressure. If you had a barometer that was sensitive enough, you'd be able to see fluctuations of several microbars when the waves arrive."
The United States Air Force operated a network of stations to listen for nuclear weapons tests. The network was the nation's first line of warning during the 1960s and early 1970s -- until the rise of the satellite era -- ReVelle said. With the array, scientists could determine the size and origin of the infrasonic waves.
And in the early days of listening for nuclear weapons, the arrival of these very low-frequency sound waves sometimes put the nation on very high alert.
"On Aug. 3, 1963, on the heels of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the stations detected a one-megaton event south of Africa," ReVelle said. "As you can imagine, it must have created quite a stir. It turned out to be a bolide that could have been as large as 25 meters in diameter."
Since infrasound monitoring stations were set up, a number of large events have been recorded, among them:
-- On Sept. 26 and 27, 1962, two separate objects with an equivalent explosive force of 20 kilotons and 30 kilotons (each at least six to eight meters in diameter), respectively, entered the atmosphere above the Middle East .
-- On April 1, 1965, the network detected the Revelstoke Meteorite, an object somewhere around six meters in diameter. The meteorite yielded enough infrasonic and seismic data that researchers were able to plot a trajectory and comb an area of Canadian wilderness in search of the crater. It was never found, but scientists did find about two grams of the object on the ground. The Revelstoke Meteorite was the smallest ever recovered and it was comprised of a very soft material known as carbonaceous chrondrite, which will crumble when lightly squeezed.
-- On Feb. 1, 1994, an object that was about 15 meters in diameter slammed into the atmosphere over the Marshall Islands in the Pacific at a velocity of about 25 kilometers a second. Luckily, the fireball, reported by some witnesses as being brighter than the sun for about a second, most likely came down in the ocean, ReVelle said.
Many large events have been recorded since the 1960s, but 1996 was a particularly good year for fireballs, particularly the nights of Oct. 2 through 4, when nearly a dozen bolides were seen over the Earth.
"The Earth ran into a swarm of these things in October," ReVelle said. "Who knows where they came from; perhaps they were the result of a near-Earth asteroid that had collided with something, maybe the moon."
During that period, at least five separate fireballs were noticed and recorded above California, as well as two above New Mexico and others above the Pacific Northwest. A particularly bright fireball appeared near Little Lake, Calif., on Oct. 3 at around 8:45 p.m. PDT, and could be seen above Los Angeles and San Francisco; about 105 minutes earlier, a fireball had appeared in the skies above New Mexico.
The California bolide -- estimated to be about three-quarters of a meter in diameter and detected by three infrasound stations that were nearly 600 miles away and 31 California seismic stations -- was seen by more than 200 people. Many actually heard the object.
"Sometimes you'll actually hear a hissing or a buzzing noise and you'll turn around, look and see a fireball," he said. "What you're hearing is more of an electrical disturbance caused by the object interacting with Earth's geomagnetic field. The perturbation travels at nearly the speed of light, while the bolide itself only travels 50 to 100 times faster than the speed of sound, and that's why people were able to turn around and see the thing after they heard it."
The October fireballs above California and New Mexico were the subject of plenty of publicity and speculation. Researchers originally believed that one fireball had entered the atmosphere, skipped back into space, orbited Earth once and re-entered the skies again.
ReVelle's infrasonic data and subsequent reports from ground observers indicate, however, that the fireballs seen that night above New Mexico and California came from two different objects - trajectories indicate that the first bolide didn't enter the atmosphere at an angle that would allow it to skip back out into space.
Still, the events intrigue ReVelle and other researchers at the Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratory; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Western Ontario.
"There are a number of questions left to be answered about the Oct. 3 fireballs," he said, "and there are some things which don't quite add up. You know, I'm not really sure what was happening in the sky that night."
The four arrays of listening stations operated by Los Alamos -- the only such network left in regular operation in the world -- can detect meteors that are as small as a few centimeters in diameter. The stations are useful because they can help validate other non-proliferation and verification techniques, and they cost very little to operate and maintain.
"In the realm of non-proliferation, it's a very inexpensive insurance policy, and the array gives us a tremendous opportunity to learn about meteors and atmospheric phenomena as well," ReVelle said.
--James E. Rickman
MSL feels effects of cold weather
Steven Martinez of Johnson Controls World Services Inc. uses a
vaccuum hose from a carpet cleaning machine to mop up water from the auditorium
of the Materials Science Laboratory Building on Wednesday while Joe Garcia
checks the water level in the reservoir. A broken water pipe caused localized
flooding and leaks in other wings of the building. Photo by Fred
Rick
The auditorium and a nearby lunchroom in the Laboratory's Materials Science Laboratory received flooding damage after some coils that heat water in the roof burst due to the low temperature early Wednesday.
Damage was confined mostly to the auditorium, though some leaks were observed in other wings of the building. No telephones, computers or other equipment were damaged, though some ceiling tiles, carpet and chairs will need to be replaced.
Nearly all of the 60 or so employees in the building were relocated to other areas while clean-up continues, according to Phil Pellette of the ESH & F Operations Team (MST-ESHF).
Pellette said employees were asked to cover computers and furniture at 9:30 a.m. An hour earlier, the first coils from a water heater broke. As the building began warming up, other leaks developed because frozen water in pipes were thawing, said Pellette. All employees were asked to leave the building about 11:15 a.m., he said.
As of midafternoon Wednesday, the heating water system had been restored to about 50 percent of the building, he said, adding that employees should probably be able to return to their offices Thursday.
Temperatures in the building also were cold enough to cause a sprinkler head in the foyer of the building to burst and crash to the floor. Another sprinkler head in the foyer was removed as a safety precaution.
The 61,000-square-foot building is about three years old.
--Steve Sandoval
KOATS for Kids update 
To date, the Laboratory has collected about 50 coats as part of the KOATS for Kids campaign, which runs through Jan. 31. If you have a new or used winter jacket, coat or sweater that you'd like to donate, drop it off at the UC/Northern New Mexico Office anytime from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday (remember, though, the office will be closed during the holiday closure). Coats for infants and toddlers are especially needed, and all donated coats will be distributed to families in Northern New Mexico communities. Anyone wishing to receive a coat or knowing of someone who needs one should call 1-800-985-7232.
Last
chance to contribute to the United Way
As of Thursday, the Lab has raised $313,150.73 for the 1997 Northern New Mexico/Los Alamos United Way campaign, which ends today. A little more than 25 percent of University of California employees have contributed so far. Last year's participation rate was about 32 percent.
For those who still are planning to make a donation, please return your pledge card to your United Way coordinator by the close of business today. Remember, more than 20 Northern New Mexico agencies benefit from funds raised, and you also may direct your contribution to a specific agency or agencies on the pledge card if you wish.
This is the latest breakdown of the percentage of employees by organization who have contributed to the United Way:
Organization |
Percentage |
AA |
39.02 |
AOT |
28.3 |
BUS |
19.27 |
CIC |
22.73 |
CIO |
58.62 |
CST |
16.31 |
DIR |
56.25 |
DoD |
23.08 |
DV |
66.67 |
DX |
23.13 |
EES |
28.13 |
EM |
14.29 |
ESA |
24.82 |
ESH |
23.15 |
ET |
37.5 |
FSS |
31.76 |
GR |
30 |
HR |
34.47 |
IPO |
43.14 |
LC |
25 |
LER |
26.51 |
LS |
7.91 |
MST |
25.06 |
NIS |
28.14 |
NIS-PO |
4.26 |
NMSM |
62.16 |
NMT |
25.19 |
NWT |
35.14 |
P |
20.92 |
PA |
100 |
QP |
61.54 |
STB |
45 |
T |
28.05 |
TSA |
35.14 |
X |
33.20 |
LANL | Phone Book | Search | Help
L O S A L A M O S
N A T I O N A L L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University of California for the US Department of Energy
Newsbulletin Comments - Copyright © UC 1996 - Disclaimer - 20 December 1996