Encyclopedia of Espionage: Malicious Data, Manhattan Project, and Mapping Technology

This set covers key terminology related to the Manhattan Project, malicious data security threats like the Melissa virus, and modern geospatial mapping technologies.

Malicious data

Data that, when introduced to a computer (usually by an operator unaware that he or she is doing so), will cause the computer to perform actions undesirable to the computer’s owner.

Melissa

A case of malicious data wedded to a macro virus that spread through global e-mail systems on March 26, 1999, causing $80$ million worth of damage.

Macro virus

A virus that works by setting in motion an automatic sequence of actions within a software application.

Manhattan Project

An epic, secret, wartime effort during World War II to design and build the world’s first nuclear weapons, costing $20$ billion.

Neils Bohr

Danish physicist whose compound nucleus theory laid the foundation for the theoretical exploration of fission.

Fission

The process whereby the nucleus of an atom absorbs a neutron, then breaks into two equal fragments, releasing heat and radiation.

Leo Szilard

Hungarian physicist who conceived the idea of the nuclear chain reaction in 1933 and helped draft a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding nuclear weapons.

Manhattan Engineering District

The intentionally misnamed organization, now commonly known as the Manhattan Project, placed under the command of Army Brigadier General Leslie Richard Groves.

Robert Oppenheimer

The American physicist recruited to be the scientific director for the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos facility.

Critical mass

The amount of fissionable material necessary to begin a nuclear chain reaction.

Gaseous diffusion

The process used at Oak Ridge to extract the $U-235$ isotope from uranium ore.

Enrico Fermi

Italian physicist who supervised the first controlled sustained chain reaction underneath the University of Chicago football stadium in 1942.

Little Boy

The code name for the uranium bomb that used explosives to crash pieces of uranium together to begin an explosive chain reaction.

Fat Man

The code name for the plutonium bomb, which utilized a series of concentric nested spheres and an explosive lens system.

Taylor waves

The rapid drop in pressure that occurs behind a detonation front which could potentially interfere with an implosion.

Gadget

The code name for the plutonium test bomb detonated on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Trinity

The code name for the first nuclear test blast, which was roughly equivalent to $20,000$ tons of TNT.

Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The clandestine address used for all correspondence by residents of the secret Los Alamos facility.

Enola Gay

The American B-29 "Flying Fortress" that dropped the uranium bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Mapping technology

A broad term describing equipment and techniques used to prepare, analyze, and distribute maps, including satellites, GPS, and GIS.

National Imagery and Mapping Agency

An agency formed in 1996 by consolidating federal agencies to manage imagery and geospatial intelligence for the United States.

InSAR

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, a technology used to create digital elevation models (DEMs).

Multispectral imagery

Imagery created using sensors that respond to different bands within the visible and invisible portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A network of 24 satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of $20,200\text{ m}$ ($12.55\text{ mi}$) used for navigation and precise mapping.

Geographic information system (GIS)

Software that allows users to digitally store, retrieve, analyze, and display maps of all kinds.