Documents / Report
This U.S. Department of War release compiles 1949 records tied to Sandia Base, New Mexico. It includes a Sandia Base security inspection reply and a W. D. Crozier letter to Lincoln LaPaz. It also contains Crozier and Seely's report on collecting airborne copper particles after the July 24, 1949 fireball near Socorro, which they judged negative or inconclusive. LaPaz's sixth report on green fireballs disputes parts of that finding, and a Fourth Army report describes unusual lights around the Q Area at Camp Hood, Texas, in March 1949.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-22 Incident: 1948-1950, New Mexico. This file contains 116 pages of documentation from the Armed Forces Special Weapons Program (AFSWP) – the direct, post-World War II successor to the Manhattan Project – and from the U.S. Air Force – relating to a series of sightings and investigations in Sandia, New Mexico, from 1948-1950. This file contains 209 sightings of “green orbs,” “discs,” and “fireballs” reported near the military base. Witnesses reported unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) maneuvering, flying out of sight, disappearing, or exploding. The documents also include the results of contemporary investigations into residual copper powder found in some areas where sightings were reported. A few of these investigations became the basis for Project Grudge, which collected reports of unidentified flying objects from various other military installations – also included in this collection.
“Socorro, New Mexico”4 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
To: Lt. Colonel Doyle Rees - Page 2
Subj: Anomalous Luminous Phenomena (Seventh Report) May 23,1950
(6) In the case of genuine meteors the paths are directed toward all points of the compass with equal frequency. On the contrary in the case of the green fireballs, plots of admissible approach sectors show that there is a very pronounced tendency for the paths to come in from the north half of the sky.
(7) The three groups of anomalous greenish luminous phenomena show a curious association with well known meteor showers, although none of these meteor showers normally produce extremely bright green fireballs, such as those recently observed. For example, the observation mentioned by Mr. Konnig appeared near the maximum of the Quadrantid shower of early January, Mr. McCullough's observation of August was near the time of the Porsid shower and the December observations all fell in the interval covered by the Geminid shower. This relationship might indicate an attempt to render the green fireballs less conspicuous by causing them to appear only when there is considerable meteoric activity.
(8) As noted in an earlier communication, the remarkably vivid green color reported for most of the December fireballs is rarely observed in the case of genuine meteors. By laboratory test this peculiar color seems to be identical with that given off by copper salts in the blowpipe flame. If this identification is correct, the wave length of the radiation from the green fireballs is near $ \mathrm{A}=5 2 1 8 \mathrm{R}. $
(9) The duration estimates of between 2 and 3 seconds reported for the green fireballs are considerably longer than those (0.4- 0.5 seconds) for the ordinary visual meteors, but shorter than the duration estimates invariably reported in the case of a genuine meteorite fall (5 to 30 seconds or even longer).
(10) For none of the green fireballs has a train of sparks or a dust cloud been reported. This contrasts sharply with the behavior noted in case of meteoric fireballs--particularly those that penetrate to the very low levels where the green fireball of December 12 was observed.
2. In the year and a half since this list was prepared, many additional observations have been made, the total number of objects now accepted as belonging in the green fireball category being 72. (A1- though this number constitutes nearly 50% of the incidents listed in the accompanying Summary, it constitutes less than 5% of the total number of unscreened observations reported to the writer.) Critical analysis of all green fireball reports now available shows that only one of the statements in the list given in paragraph 1 needs to be modified, namely, item (1). Within the last year, a considerable number of the green fireballs have appeared to fall vertically downward rather than Report, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 116 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.