Back to the Moon with Nuclear Rockets

my eyes, but the photographs wereoutstanding, easily examined undera high-powered lens (see photo, p.44).Excited, I called Paul Scully-Powerin New London, Conn., where he wasdoing submarine acoustic research."Dick Covey got 'em," I exploded,"No, not eddies at the Equator, buthuge, long solitons. They're theacoustic barriers in the tropics."Paul's response, "Good on ya,mate," was indicative that a problemhad an answer.About to leave for lunch, I met DickCovey and the mission commander,Capt. Rick Hauck, as they were comingin to view the photos to preparefor their press conference at the endof the week. As I shook hands withDick, he began apologizing:Gee, Bob, I tried. I looked atthat tropical Pacific Ocean forhours. It was as quiet, as flat as aboard. Nothing! I took a lot ofpictures, but I just must havemissed anything good.Before I could say a word, Rickbroke in:I'm telling you, Bob. BothDick and I spent a lot of time watching that ocean. TheSun's glitter pattern was perfect. But, I guess Hoot Gibsonand his guys were right, there are no spirals near the Equator.It was just flat. No action.I just grinned. "Gentlemen. First, congratulations on a greatflight. Now, come with me into my "photo lair."Cranking through the rolls of film over the light table, I said,quickly,You can go through the rolls at you leisure shortly, andyou got some great stuff. First, though, let me show youthe first photos ever of an ocean feature for which we'vesearched for years.O.K. Here's your flat calm tropical Pacific. See that littleline. No, it's not a scratch on the film, it is the visibleresponse of an open-ocean suloy. Covered by these fivephotos, the wave-line was more than 500 miles long andabout as close to being parallel to the Equator as I canjudge. From the the preliminary flight data, it started about3° north of the Equator near the Date Line and youtracked it to within 1.5° north."Holy Cow," was the response from Dick Covey, as helooked at the photos. "Man, I've got to tell you that I never sawthose things; not at all." Rick's comment was the same."Ah, yes." said I, "Serendipity rides along once again."4 b Summer 1999 21st CENTURYA continuous series of equatorial open-ocean suloys, between 1° and 3°N in the centralPacific, viewed from the flight deck of the Shuttle Atlantis, August 1992.I'm not surprised that you didn't see them. All of thesuloys ever seen from space have been around islands, inembayments, or straits. It's just the same as Dave Leestmanot seeing hundreds of spiral eddies when he was lookingfor ships' wakes. He was geared to wakes, so saw noeddies even though they were visible. You were preparedto see eddies, and there were none.We discussed the thought of naming them "Covey's Shears,"but decided that even though it was not as good as having afreeway named after you, such as, the "John Young Expressway"in Florida. It would be difficult to take your family on avisit to a "Covey Shear."Once we learned that open-ocean suloys did exist, andhow they appeared from space, then observations came fromevery Shuttle crew that flew over the tropical ocean at timeswhen the Sun's glitter pattern was suitable for viewing. Someof the best came from the crew of STS-46, flying in the Atlantisin August 1992 (see photo, above). Although they had a numberof tasks that were technically demanding, there were threeavid Earth observers aboard: the mission commander, Col.Loren Shriver, and mission specialists Claude Nicollier andMarsha Ivins.With real-time information also coming from the on-boardvideo, the location of the suloy was quickly sent to Honoluluwhere there was a NOAA ship ready to sail on a tropical scientificcruise. It took the ship four days to reach, locate, and ex-