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THEMIS -- I01293004btr
“ … I think you'll be terribly disappointed in the nighttime IR images …”
“Bamf,” Enterprise Mission Chat
August 21, 2002
By Richard C. Hoagland
© 2002 The Enterprise Mission
What do you do, in an increasingly “authority” driven world, when government-paid representatives you must rely upon to tell you the truth about a variety of increasingly complex (and literally life-changing) issues -- ranging from the reality of imminent “terrorist threats” from weapons of mass destruction in the hands of “a Middle Eastern madman,” to evidence of artificial ruins on the surface of a nearby world -- repeatedly “shade” the truth? When does “technical shorthand,” or “simplification” become an outright lie … to serve a hidden political agenda?
And how, in that environment, can true democracy survive?
Case in point:
In all the recent clamor over Odyssey’s July 24th daytime Cydonia IR image (with a startlingly different version “leaked” to Keith Laney from the official ASU website on July 25th), most observers seem to have forgotten that what we originally “ordered” from the THEMIS camera team was a nighttime IR view.
This scientific preference was based on simple physics: the idea that any “non-fractal, artificial Cydonia anomalies” (“ruined steel or glass buildings” versus “simple mesas” -- carved or otherwise) must have very different thermal IR signatures at night from their surroundings … when confusing daytime solar radiation would be completely absent. The obviously higher “signal-to-noise-ratio” in a dark nighttime IR image, allowing easier detection of potentially artificial materials, was what we were looking for.
Then came the July 24th/25th daytime THEMIS IR Cydonia release and this original Enterprise objective became one of the first casualties … in all the political “noise” and hoopla over the existence of (at least!) two versions of the official daytime image.
Carefully reinforcing this distraction from the original nighttime IR goal were multiple statements made by Noel Gorelick Manager of the Mars Computation Center at Arizona State University (ASU). Gorelick is in charge of the THEMIS software development program for the Odyssey multi-spectral camera, as well as data reduction and preparation of the returned spacecraft camera data for publication in NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS). In his extended electronic visits to the official Enterprise Mission on-line Conference, beginning on May 21, 2002, and in his peculiar role as “Bamf” , Gorelick made many negative assessments regarding the ability of Odyssey to secure nighttime IR images of Cydonia during the early phases of the official mapping mission which began February 18, 2002.
In one recorded Enterprise chat session (August 29, 2002 below), Gorelick made the following significant comments about the feasibility of August nighttime IR at Cydonia’s latitude of ~40 degrees N. :
[00:38] <MrKane> Im [sic] curious whatever happend [sic] to
the hope for a night time IR
[00:38] <rhw007> that's three areas of computational room for 3 axis.
[00:38] <Mintaka20> Hi Arch :)
[00:38] <TheObsrvr> hi, Fema
[00:38] <MrKane> is NASA not going to have any?
[00:38] <rhw007> and this beyond the normal QUBE data.
[00:38] <Bamf> The projected images use back planes.
[00:39] <Bamf> You seem to be headed towards a point,rwh.
[00:39] <mArstrAx> message board web url please?
[00:39] <mArstrAx> tem board address
[00:39] <Bamf> It's a bit early in the martian [sic] year to be doing
nighttime images of 40N, Kane.
[00:39] <Bamf> Another 2 months or so to let it warm up more ....
In an earlier session (August 21), Gorelick had been even more emphatic, regarding THEMIS’ inability to take immediate nighttime IR images of Cydonia:
[03:13] <copper1> So from you [sic] so patiently explained about the
properties of IR, why did they not do Cydonia at night?
[03:13] <MikeJM> not worded correctly above
[03:14] <copper1> from what you so patiently
[03:14] <copper1> sorry, i [sic] do not type well
[03:14] <copper1> especially at this hour
[03:14] <Os> Bamf! Do you think that science, NASA, JPL, Odyssey team,
ASU et al are really interested in trying to confirm or prove once and for all this apparently
silly idea about artifacts form intelligent beings on Mars?
[03:14] <Bamf> Too cold. Cydonia is at 40N. That's 70 degrees away
from the sub-solar hot spot, and not terribly far away from being in constant
darkness (northern winter)
[03:15] <copper1> Constant darkness?
[03:15] <Bamf> sure, like alaska [sic] during winter.
[03:15] <MikeJM> artifacts I think would boost the funding and the push
[03:16] <copper1> what about any sunlight there?
[03:16] <Bamf> During the winter, there's not much sunlight. So things don't
get hot during the day.
[03:16] <Bamf> In another 3 months, it'll be summer in the northern hemisphere,
which will be the best time to get those northern spots.
[03:17] <copper1> Isn't the location comparable to that of NY, which does
get sunlight in winter
[03:17] <Bamf> Yeah, but have you been to NY in the winter? It's REALLY cold.
[03:17] <copper1> I grew up there
[03:18] <copper1> And I really did see the sun, I swear
[03:18] <Bamf> Well then, you know! You can see the sun during the
winter, but it's pretty far south.
[03:18] <copper1> and pretty warm on some day [sic]
[03:18] <copper1> s
[03:18] <MikeJM> I knew it would take time to set up shop and get the data
at the correct times but they wouldnt [sic] listen
[03:18] <MikeJM> :)
[03:18] <Bamf> At the dead of winter, 60N is the lowest point that sees
constant darkness. That's about 1200km away.
[03:19] <copper1> But from what you explained about different materials
retaining heat differently wouldn;t [sic] that show up for IR
[03:19] <Bamf> Whereas the southern hot spot is at -30, which is about
4200 km away.
[03:19] <copper1> Ok, but there still is a temp change that should be
measured by what you explained
[03:19] <Bamf> It can show up, but things are just so cold that they don't
emit much energy. The noise becomes larger than the signal.
[03:20] <copper1> is that distortion?
[03:21] <Bamf> Yeah, there's a little. The night-time temperatures all over
are about 180K. At the dead of winter, Cydonia probably warms up to probably 210
or 220K [during the day]. At the peak of summer it can warm up to maybe 270K [in daylight].
So thats [sic] a big temperature factor.
[03:21] <copper1> what if there were an active area under the surface,
like a volcanic region or
[03:22] <copper1> little Martians sitting around their campfires? LOL]
[03:22] <Bamf> The noise isn't exactly distortion. Since everything emits
some energy, there's a constant amount of just noise in every image. That level is comparable
to the amount of signal you can get during winter.
[03:22] <Bamf> Well, those would definitly [sic] show up, yes ....
* * *
Bamf’s nighttime IR “explanations” took place in August.
On October 1st, the first, long-anticipated “dump” of ~1800 THEMIS VIS, daytime, and nighttime IR images -- acquired from the beginning of the Odyssey Science Mission, February 18th, through March 31st, 2002 -- was released by the Odyssey THEMIS team to NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS). Simultaneously, ASU unveiled it’s own THEMIS data archive (also prepared by “Bamf’s” own programmers) which included a Javascript map of Mars, showing the simultaneous global distribution of all 1800 newly-released THEMIS images (below).
And here (below) is a second, companion map but this time displaying only the nighttime IR images acquired between February 18th and March 31st.
What is immediately apparent from the latter again, prepared by “Bamf” himself is that once again … he lied.
Even a casual examination of this map reveals that roughly half of all the nighttime IR THEMIS images just released [remember, taken between February 18th and March 31st, as dated here on Earth) -- coincidentally, the dead of winter in the Northern Martian Hemisphere this year were taken in the Northern Martian Hemisphere itself! (All the images above the “0” red line, marking the Martian equator.)
What was that “Bamf” said back in August five months after these nighttime IR images were taken--
“It's a bit early in the martian [sic] year to be doing nighttime images of 40N ....
“40 N” is “40 degrees, North latitude.” And, what’s at “40N?” Why, Cydonia of course, at 40.868N.
If you actually count the number of nighttime IR images straddling this “40N latitude line” acquired between February 18th and March 31st , it comes to seventeen not counting those taken even further north. So, were all these images a waste of valuable Mission time and limited resources because, as “Bamf” insisted at Enterprise, “things are just so cold that they don't emit much energy. The noise becomes larger than the signal [emphasis added] ...”?
Let’s look at the actual data.
Here (below) is a just released nighttime IR “footprint” of three images straddling Cydonia’s latitude (arrow). The closest I0118002 was acquired on March 21st , just 100 miles to the east of Cydonia proper.
As can easily be seen by examining a portion of the actual image (below), the nighttime thermal infrared signal at Cydonia’s latitude on March 21st was more than adequate to detect and scientifically analyze a variety of well-known Martian surface processes starting with warm, exposed rocky crater rims, colder crater “ejecta” patterns of pulverized rocks blown out around those craters, and a range of crater “ages” discernable from their apparent temperature differences (young craters are less eroded, and thus have more large blocks in their ejecta to retain the daytime solar heating than do older, more eroded craters …).
In fact, the energy being emitted in some areas of this full image -- remember, at Cydonia’s then winter latitude -- can be seen to have actually exceeded the (significant) latitude of the CCD detectors in the camera!
The data block from the official PDS archive for this image (below) says that the BTR (brightness temperature) of the coldest to warmest sections ranges from 217 Kelvin to 233 K. (In Centigrade, that’s 56 to 40 degrees. And in Farenheit, 69 to 41 degrees below zero).
In case there’s any doubt that this (by ASU’s standards) is an “excellent IR image,” we’ve made of a comparison (below) with another nighttime IR. This example (below, right) was acquired close to the daytime Martian sub-solar point (~-30 degrees South) -- a region of maximum daytime temperatures at that time of the Martian year -- a couple days (March 24th , Earth date) after THEMIS nighttime IR image # I01180002 (below, left) was acquired.
As you can see, there is essentially NO DIFFERENCE in the “brightness temperature” (BTR) of the two images the first taken in the dead of Martian winter, and the second at the height of Martian summer in the opposite hemisphere. While the noise level in the winter image (remember, straddling the critical Cydonia latitude) is slightly higher, the temperature differences of both surfaces are easily far above the “noise” … completely contrary to “Bamf’s” Enterprise assertions.
So, what gives?
Besides being another testament (first revealed by the stunning clarity of the “leaked” Cydonia daytime IR) to the true engineering capabilities of the Odyssey THEMIS camera (and thus, the camera’s design engineers!), this telling nighttime IR summer/winter comparison also reveals another example of what MarsNews.com termed a few weeks ago “‘Bamf’ … caught in a lie, and not the first in this episode ....” “Anatomy of a Bamf”.
Again, the crucial question, “why?” Bamf had to realize that this lie too would be easily exposed -- once the October PDS images were formally released by NASA.
The only logical answer is that this was merely a “delaying tactic”: designed to convince gullible members of Enterprise that a similar nighttime IR image of Cydonia could not possibly “already exist!” A desperate political strategy … hoping to prevent a general outcry led by Enterprise members -- for immediate release of such an image … before that image could be carefully sanitized of “incriminating” information.
How can we be sure that such a nighttime IR Cydonia image already has been taken?
Several lines of evidence point strongly now in that direction the most obvious being the amateurish desperation of Bamf’s now quite apparent lie. Other evidence includes:
1) October publication in the ASU/PDS archives of the “failed” attempt to secure a previous Cydonia daytime IR image (THEMIS image #I01024002) on March 8, 2002.
2) Confirmation in those same archives that this daytime IR image was acquired on the same orbit, and at the same time, as the Odyssey THEMIS VIS image of Cydonia, subsequently released as an “image of the day” in April, 2002 (below).
Dr. Mark Carlotto, with whom we’ve had some serious scientific disagreements on the THEMIS daytime IR Cydonia release in July, recently made the following political comment regarding these developments:
“The release of a second [daytime IR] image over this area raises the question of why ASU/JPL has targeted this area twice so early in the mission and why this information was not made public sooner.”
In this we wholeheartedly concur.
The now documented acquisition of two daytime Cydonia IR images, and so early in the mission, along with the simultaneous VIS image (also taken on March 8th but mysteriously held until April 12th), totally confirms the validity of Carlotto’s belated questioning of the apparent motives of the entire THEMIS team vis a vis Cydonia. It also increases dramatically the possibility that the critical nighttime IR image we initially demanded, as part of this high interest, could also easily by now have been acquired … just not posted either in the PDS or in the ASU official THEMIS archive.
What is that well-worn maxim for a “crime”: means … motive … opportunity?
As we’ve now seen -- from the published Odyssey orbital evidence, combined with actual high quality nighttime IR in the northern winter Martian hemisphere … a stones throw from Cydonia -- the THEMIS team were clearly in possession of all three … from February 18th to March 31, 2002.
The “64 dollar question” then becomes: did NASA take clandestine advantage of this opportunity?! Was Bamf’s “mission” at Enterprise designed from the beginning as a serious distraction to demanding the real prize … an untouched nighttime IR image of Cydonia?!
Robert Williams, former college professor and member of the Enterprise Conference, months ago published his own growing suspicions that one NASA/ASU/JPL strategy for deliberately confusing the public and the press -- regarding the number and timing of Odyssey Cydonia images taken so far -- was to acquire both visible light and daytime infrared data at the same time … then, to dole out various portions of those simultaneous images as apparently separate PR “news announcements.” The October PDS publication of Odyssey’s first six weeks of imaging has now conclusively proven William’s theory that there is a major NASA/ASU/JPL deception around “what” images Odyssey acquires … if not precisely “when.”
Given this telling confirmation, and Bamf’s now totally discredited assertions regarding “the impossibility of nighttime IR in the winter hemisphere of Mars …” the crucial question must be asked again:
“What is the likelihood of a current nighttime IR image of Cydonia? And, if such an image has been taken … just what did it reveal? And, is this why even the possibility of its early acquisition even now is being repeatedly, categorically denied …?”
Stay tuned, for more of Bamf’s latest “coded” clues ... and … a major breakthrough.
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