THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE MASS MOTION OF A HIGH ALTITUDE NUCLEAR EXPLOSION

Technical Report · Mon May 13 04:00:00 EDT 1963

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4675214· OSTI ID:4675214

Colgate, S. A.

The persistence of the free expansion of the detonation products of a high-altitude detonation is determined by the sum of the stresses of the environment. Below 200 km the classical dynamic friction with the air couples the detonation products to a very much larger mass of air. Above this altitude more uncertain plasma phenomena of magnetic and electrostatic shocks must be considered to determine this coupling. If a cubic scale height of air is raised to a temperature such that its sound speed is greater than escape velocity, it jets upward, and the ionized fraction is stopped and mixed unstably with the earth's magnetic field. The subsequent expansion along the field lines deposits the major fraction of the debris at the opposite conjugate point. The BETA decay in transit on the various L surfaces reached by unstable mixing determines the high energy electron injection into trapped orbits. For the Starfish event (1.4 megatons at 400 km) theory predicts that the detonation products and a cubic scale height of air expands upward until stopped by the earth's field at 1000 km. In addition the deposition of the debris in the atmosphere is expected at the southern conjugate point at 250 km altitude dispersed over 300 km due to magnetic field mixing. Approximately 5% BETA injection into trapped orbits of L > 1.3 is expected. (auth)

• Research Organization: California. Univ., Livermore. Lawrence Radiation Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• NSA Number: NSA-17-031803
• OSTI ID: 4675214
• Report Number(s): UCRL-7224(Rev.II)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

AIR
ATMOSPHERE
BETA DECAY
COUPLING
DEPOSITS
EARTH
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
ENVIRONMENT
EXPANSION
FALLOUT
FRICTION
GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
INJECTION
INTERACTIONS
IONIZATION
LEVELS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MASS
MIXING
MOTION
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
ORBITS
PLASMA
PRECIPITATION
SHOCK WAVES
SOUND
STRESSES
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE
TRAPS
VELOCITY