Project Vela was a United States Department of Defense project to monitor Soviet Union compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. [1] The treaty banned the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater, but permitted underground testing.
In August 1959, several groups focused on detecting underground nuclear tests were established within the US Department of Defense; on September 2, 1959, the Secretary of Defense assigned the research responsibilities to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). This initial assignment involved seven tasks: [2] creating a worldwide network of standardized seismological stations; conduct research relating to underground test detection, and on seismic detection stations; conduct nuclear and chemical underground tests to expand knowledge of seismic signatures; and three tasks of a more administrative nature. From the beginning, however, and through 1960, ARPA pressed to add research for testing surface-based, atmospheric, and outer-space detonations, and advocated satellites as a potential platform for such detections. [3]
The Vela Project started as a small budget research program within the DARPA [1] Projects Agencies until 1961 when it was granted greater funding and resources through the authority of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army. [1] This was likely prompted by increased caution over Domestic Nuclear Affairs resulting from the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash as well as in anticipation of the 1963 PTB Treaty.
The initial project was limited to the development of the Vela Satellites, but was later expanded and reorganized into three distinct levels of monitoring:
The project's space and atmospheric divisions operated until the emplacement of satellites in the Defense Support Program (DSP), and were later integrated into the Global Positioning System set of satellites. Currently, all satellites under Project Vela are under the management of IONDS. The seismic division of Project Vela remains in activity today.
In 2020, National Security Science magazine featured an article on Project Vela titled "Cold War watchmen" that contained a description of the project history focusing on the contributions made at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as commentary from scientists that worked on the project. [4] In the article astrophysicist Ed Fenimore states "Vela was the prototypical project that made Los Alamos the premier scientific national security laboratory in the world." Data from Project Vela is still used for national security work, and sensors, such as those developed in the project, are still an important part of nuclear detonation detection.
There is very little documentation which directly addresses the topic of the initial Vela Project due to its low funding, staffing, resources and status of priority. The first sensor package sent into space, labelled the "Vela Hotel" experiment, was launched aboard the Ranger 1 lunar probe in August of 1961 and returned useful data. [5] It is known that the majority of the work done on the initial Vela Project was implemented into Vela Hotel, which monitored outer space for nuclear tests. The Vela Hotel satellite program was primarily developed at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, under the supervision of the United States Air Force. A system of X-ray, Neutron, and Gamma-Ray detection monitored for nuclear testing beyond the atmosphere.
The satellites' instrumentation count [6] included 12 X-ray detectors, 18 internal Neutron and Gamma-ray detectors, data transmission equipment to send the information back to Earth, and a set of solar panels which generated 90 watts to power the instrumentation on each satellite. Six of the Vela Hotel series satellites were manufactured, each with a design life of six months, and they were launched a week after the PTB Treaty on October 17, 1963. After deployment these satellites remained operational and online for 5 years before being shut down.
The Vela Hotel series of satellites never detected any weapons being tested in outer space, but they did provide the scientific community with valuable data regarding the mechanics of the solar system. Importantly, this series of satellites was responsible for discovering Gamma-Ray Bursts, [7] markers of collapsing stars and black holes which are now recognized as the most violent events in the universe. The discovery of Gamma-Ray Bursts enabled scientists with unprecedented ability to map the universe as they augmented existing methods of measuring light to identify deep space objects.
After the completion of development on the first set of Vela Satellites in the Hotel series, DARPA began work on the next phase of the Vela satellite program, namely, on Vela Sierra, which was intended to monitor the atmosphere for covert nuclear tests. Following the deployment of the Hotel series, Los Alamos resumed development on the satellites, this time working towards the Advanced Vela series. These new satellites were created with the intention that they would replace the Hotel Series, as well as function as the satellites that would complete the objectives of the Vela Sierra subset.
The new set of Advanced Vela satellites were equipped with the same detection equipment as the Hotel series, [6] those being the 12 X-ray detectors and 18 internal Neutron and Gamma-Ray detectors, but were also equipped with a new set of instruments. The Advanced Vela series came equipped with two non-imaging photodiode sensors called bhangmeters. These measured light levels over sub-millisecond intervals, and could detect a nuclear explosion to within 3,000 miles. This addition was necessary due to the singular effects that atmospheric nuclear explosions produce, called either the "Double Flash" or the "Double-Humped Curve", which is a pair of flashes of light caused by an explosion, one lasting a millisecond which is quite intense and bright, the other far more prolonged and less intense. This "Double Flash" is what distinguishes atmospheric nuclear explosions from other kinds of explosions in the atmosphere, along with radiation, since the only feasible event that could theoretically produce a double event like an atmospheric nuclear explosion would be something incredibly rare like a meteoroid generated lightning superbolt. [8] However, radiation in the atmosphere is far less easy to calculate, as the Van Allen radiation belts can mask radioactive wavelengths and signatures. The Advanced Vela satellites were additionally fitted with larger solar panels, since the new design required 120 watts as opposed to the Hotel series' 90 watts, as well as electromagnetic sensors for detecting an electromagnetic pulse from an in-atmosphere detonation. The new set of satellites had a design life of 18 months, but instead lasted on average 7 years, with the longest lasting of the set (Vehicle 9) being shut down in 1984, lasting around 15 years before being shut down.
Vela Sierra's most famous actual event was the "Double Flash" detected on September 22, 1979, by Vela satellite 6911 near the Prince Edward Islands. [9] However, due to the lack of any corroborating evidence that a bomb ever went off in the area other than the readings the satellite provided, it is widely regarded as either a malfunction or a magnetospheric event [8] [9] affecting the instruments aboard the satellite. At the time of the event, President Jimmy Carter deemed the event evidence of a joint Israeli-South African nuclear test, [10] though since then no evidence has been uncovered to corroborate whether that is true or untrue.
Vela Uniform was the second half of Project Vela that began its development soon after the PTB Treaty was put into effect. Vela Uniform was created with the intention of monitoring seismic activity in order to determine the magnitude and location of any covert nuclear weapons tests beneath the surface of the earth. Underground tests have been illegal under international law since the widespread ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Vela Uniform can also detect underwater tests conducted at any point on the Earth's surface. The methods DARPA used to create a system with which they could determine the difference between a regular seismic event and an underground covert nuclear test involved the rigorous measurement of seven nuclear tests in the continental United States, as well as numerous smaller experiments using conventional high explosives rather than nuclear explosions. [11] [12]
| Test name | Date | Location | Yield | Test series |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoal | 1963-10-26 | Sand Springs Range 39.20012°N 118.38124°W | 12 kt | Niblick |
| Salmon | 1964-10-22 | Salmon Site 31.14229°N 89.57001°W | 5.3 kt | Whetstone |
| Long Shot | 1965-10-29 | Amchitka Island, Alaska 51.43709°N 179.18032°E | 80 kt | Flintlock |
| Sterling | 1966-12-03 | Salmon Site 31.14229°N 89.57001°W | 380 t | Latchkey |
| Scroll | 1968-04-23 | Nevada Test Site 37.33767°N 116.37647°W | < 20 kt | Crosstie |
| Diamond Dust | 1970-05-12 | Nevada Test Site 37.0104°N 116.20277°W | < 20 kt | Mandrel |
| Diamond Mine | 1971-07-01 | Nevada Test Site 37.01148°N 116.20427°W | < 20 kt | Grommet |
Over time, Vela Uniform's methods and techniques for measuring seismic activity to determine the existence and location of covert underground nuclear tests have improved, and stations for seismographical monitoring exist all around the world. This has had the effect of giving more nations the ability to better understand their own country's seismic activities, and has given more and more countries access to aid in situations of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other such events, as well as ensuring the detection of any future covert underground nuclear tests.[ further explanation needed ]
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance, yield, and effects of nuclear weapons. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by different conditions, and how personnel, structures, and equipment are affected when subjected to nuclear explosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength. Many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status through a nuclear test.
Vela was the name of a group of satellites developed as the Vela Hotel element of Project Vela by the United States to detect nuclear detonations and monitor Soviet Union compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty.
A bhangmeter is a non-imaging radiometer installed on reconnaissance and navigation satellites to detect atmospheric nuclear detonations and determine the yield of the nuclear weapon. They are also installed on some armored fighting vehicles, in particular NBC reconnaissance vehicles, in order to help detect, localise and analyse tactical nuclear detonations. They are often used alongside pressure and sound sensors in this role in addition to standard radiation sensors. Some nuclear bunkers and military facilities may also be equipped with such sensors alongside seismic event detectors.
The Vela incident was an unidentified double flash of light detected by an American Vela Hotel satellite on 22 September 1979 near the South African territory of Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean, roughly midway between Africa and Antarctica. Today, most independent researchers believe that the flash was caused by a nuclear explosion—an undeclared joint nuclear test carried out by South Africa and Israel.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is an international organization that will be established upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a Convention that outlaws nuclear test explosions. Its seat will be in Vienna, Austria. The organization will be tasked with verifying the ban on nuclear tests and will operate therefore a worldwide monitoring system and may conduct on-site inspections. The Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO, and its Provisional Technical Secretariat, were established in 1997 and are headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
High-altitude nuclear explosions are the result of nuclear weapons testing within the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere and in outer space. Several such tests were performed at high altitudes by the United States and the Soviet Union between 1958 and 1962.
The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), based at Florida's Patrick Space Force Base, is an Air Force surveillance organization assigned to the Sixteenth Air Force. Its mission is to monitor nuclear treaties of all applicable signatory countries. This is accomplished using seismic, hydroacoustic and satellite-detection systems alongside ground based and airborne materials collection systems.
Stirling Auchincloss Colgate was an American nuclear physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a professor emeritus of physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology from 1965 to 1974, of which he also served its president.
Underground nuclear testing is the test detonation of nuclear weapons that is performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the nuclear explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere.
AGILE is an X-ray and gamma ray astronomical satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
National technical means of verification (NTM) are monitoring techniques, such as satellite photography, used to verify adherence to international treaties. The phrase first appeared, but was not detailed, in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) between the US and USSR. At first, the phrase reflected a concern that the "Soviet Union could be particularly disturbed by public recognition of this capability [satellite photography]...which it has veiled.". In modern usage, the term covers a variety of monitoring technologies, including others used at the time of SALT I.
Nuclear MASINT is one of the six major subdisciplines generally accepted to make up Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), which covers measurement and characterization of information derived from nuclear radiation and other physical phenomena associated with nuclear weapons, reactors, processes, materials, devices, and facilities. Nuclear monitoring can be done remotely or during onsite inspections of nuclear facilities. Data exploitation results in characterization of nuclear weapons, reactors, and materials. A number of systems detect and monitor the world for nuclear explosions, as well as nuclear materials production.
The history of gamma-ray began with the serendipitous detection of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) on July 2, 1967, by the U.S. Vela satellites. After these satellites detected fifteen other GRBs, Ray Klebesadel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory published the first paper on the subject, Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin. As more and more research was done on these mysterious events, hundreds of models were developed in an attempt to explain their origins.
Gamma-ray astronomy is the astronomical observation of gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, with photon energies above 100 keV. Radiation below 100 keV is classified as X-rays and is the subject of X-ray astronomy.
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, or CTBTO Preparatory Commission; is an international organization based in Vienna, Austria, that is tasked with building up the verification regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The organization was established by the States Signatories to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996.
A nuclear detonation detection system (NDDS) is a device or a series of devices that are able to indicate, and pinpoint a nuclear explosion has occurred as well as the direction of the explosion. The main purpose of these devices or systems was to verify compliance of countries that signed nuclear treaties such as the Partial Test Ban treaty of 1963 (PTBT) and the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
Vela 1A was a military satellite developed to detect nuclear detonations to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the Soviet Union.
Vela 1B was a military satellite developed to detect nuclear detonations to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the Soviet Union.
Vela 3A was a U.S. reconnaissance satellite to detect explosions and nuclear tests on land and in space; the first of the third pair of Vela series satellites; taken together with Vela 3B and ERS 17 satellites.
Vela 4A was an American reconnaissance satellite to detect explosions and nuclear tests on land and in space. It was released together with Vela 4B, ERS 18, OV5 1 and OV5 3.