The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert

Project MOGUL was first conceived by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University, NY, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA. Dr. Ewing had conducted considerable research for the Navy during World War II, studying, among other things, the "sound channel" in the ocean. He proved that explosions could be heard thousands of miles away with underwater microphones placed at a predetermined depth within the sound channel. He theorized that since sound waves generated by explosions could be carried by currents deep within the ocean, they might be similarly transmitted within a sound channel in the upper atmosphere. The military application of this theory was the long-range detection of sound waves generated by Soviet nuclear detonations and the acoustical signatures of ballistic missiles as they traversed the upper atmosphere. He presented his theory to General Carl Spaatz, Chief of Staff of the Army Air Forces, in the fall of 1945. The project was approved, and research was begun by the scientific research agency of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF), the Air Materiel Command (AMC), early in 1946. The project was assigned to HQ AMC, Engineering Division, Electronics Subdivision, which in turn assigned the project to AMC's Watson Laboratories, Engineering Division, Applied Propagation Subdivision, located in Red Bank, NJ.

## SCOPE

Project MOGUL initially focused on three areas of technology: (1) an expendable microphone, capable of detecting, at long range, low-frequency sound transmissions generated by explosions and missiles; (2) a means of telemetering these sounds to a ground or airborne receiver; and (3) a system from which to suspend the microphone and telemetering device in the upper atmosphere for an extended period of time. To meet these criteria, contracts were awarded by AMC to Columbia University (AMC contract no. W28-099-ac-82) for the acoustical equipment, and to New York University (NYU) for the development of constantlevel balloons (AMC contract no. W28-099-ac-241). After the initial contracts were awarded, Project MOGUL branched out into many areas related to the geophysical properties of the upper atmosphere, including radiowave propagation, radar propagation, ionospheric physics, solar physics, terrestrial magnetism, meteorological physics, and weather forecasting. Considerable resources were devoted to Project MOGUL which included numerous bomber and transport aircraft and two oceangoing vessels. At one point the staff, exclusive of contractors, numbered over 100 persons. To accommodate this sensitive, high-priority project, facilities of the secluded Oakhurst Field Station of Watson Laboratories were used. Balloon operations associated with Project Mogul were conducted at various locations throughout the United States and the Pacific, the latter in reference to acoustical detection research associated with the Sandstone atomic tests at Entiwetok Atoll in April and May 1948. $ ^{7} $