OSSY (On Site Seismic Yield) source characterization
The On Site Seismic Yield (OSSY) experiment was performed during September 1989. It was a collaborative effort between scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and the Seismographic Stations at UC Berkeley. It was performed in Yucca Valley at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The general objective of the OSSY experiment was to investigate techniques for using seismic measurements to estimate the yield of nuclear explosions. The basic idea is to use chemical explosions of known size to calibrate source coupling and wave propagation effects near the site of a nuclear explosion. Once calibrated in this way, seismic measurements, obtained at locations sufficiently far from the source to be in the region of linear elastic response but sufficiently close to provide accurate registration, can be used to estimate the yield of the nuclear explosion. If such a technique can be shown to be sufficiently accurate, it has the advantages of being relatively inexpensive, flexible in experimental design, and applicable to either large or small yields. This investigation has proceeded in a two-stage process. The first stage is to develop and test the calibration procedure. The second stage is to apply the method to actual nuclear explosions. Partly because it was considered desirable to preform a complete analysis of the calibration procedure before applying it to a nuclear explosion and partly because no convenient nuclear explosion tests were available at the time, the OSSY experiment was concentrated on the calibration stage of the process. 9 refs., 18 figs., 2 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/ER
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098; W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 6309478
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-29783; ON: DE91004125
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
450100 -- Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense-- Chemical Explosions & Explosives
450200* -- Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense-- Nuclear Explosions & Explosives
CALIBRATION
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIONS
DETECTION
DOCUMENT TYPES
EXPLOSIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEASURING METHODS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NEVADA TEST SITE
NUCLEAR EXPLOSION DETECTION
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
PROGRESS REPORT
SEISMIC DETECTION
SEISMIC P WAVES
SEISMIC S WAVES
SEISMIC SOURCES
SEISMIC WAVES
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
VELOCITY
WAVE PROPAGATION
YIELDS