Re: "U" vs "C" vs ... in elsets

JBARKER@arinc.com
Fri, 04 Jun 1999 9:07 -0400 

     Some members of this group are either in the US government or work 
     directly with it.  The use of "C" in the "classification designator" 
     field presents us with a problem in that storing any elset with "C" or 
     "S" in this field on an unclassified computer whould give the 
     appearance of a security violation.  That's something we can't afford 
     and wastes a lot of time to resolve. 
     
     
     I support for Bill Bard's suggestion to use A for amateur, E for 
     estimated, a P for comPuted, or a space character (ie just leave it 
     blank).  Or something like that.
     
     Jeff Barker
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: "U" vs "C" vs ... in elsets
Author:  jamesv@softcom.net (Jim Varney) at SMTPGATE
Date:    6/3/99 11:42 PM


Allen Thomson wrote:
     
> Long form: As I understand it, this is a classification designator used by
> NORAD. U being "unclassified", C  "confidential", S (which I've occasionally 
> seen slip through, though not on any very interesting objects)  "secret", T 
> "top secret," and, who knows, perhaps other letters for things even toper
> secret.
>
> In the present (GPS) case, Jim Varney has chosen to use C (presumably for 
> "computed") to distingish the GPS elements he computes from information
> available at a JPL site (http://www.softcom.net/users/jamesv/gps/gps.html)
>  presumably to distinguish them from official NORAD disseminations). Jim may 
> want to comment on this.   I, because I don't like to mess with data more
> than necessary, simply transfer the elements to the elyymmdd files with the 
> C left in.
     
Randy John is right: I used the 'C' instead of 'U' when computing the GPS 
elsets to express the continuing humor I feel over the contradictory policy 
of withholding elsets when highly precise orbital data is available 
elsewhere.
     
Anyway, my apologies to Rick von Glahn for breaking his Element Manager 
program.  That certainly wasn't my intent!
     
Allen raises a very good point -- I think it would be very useful to use 
column 8 to differentiate between official NORAD elsets ("U") and those 
that are calculated by Seesat folks.  Too bad "S" is taken.  S for "SeeSat- 
produced elsets" would be a nice touch.
     
 -- Jim
     
__________________________________________________________ 
Jim Varney        -121.398 W, 38.457 N, 10m
Member, Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society
Sacramento Iridiums www.softcom.net/users/jamesv/index.htm