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SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR'S REPORT OF ATOMIC WEAPON TESTS AT ENIWETOK, 1951 ANNEX 8.3 - SPECIAL RADAR, RADIO + PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF WEAPONS EFFECTS ( OPERATION GREENHOUSE, PT I, II, III, IV ) (DELETED)

UNK, [* AF]; UNK, [* JOINT TASK FORCE THREE]; UNK, [LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY]; BOARIO, W R [* AF]; ABBITT, [* AF]; STANFORD, L H [* JOINT TASK FORCE THREE]; FURNISH, E E [* AF]; KEEGAN, R E [* AF]

GREENHOUSE OPERATION; EQUIPMENT; AIRCRAFT; DAMAGE; DOG-0451 EVENT; EASY-0451 EVENT; GEORGE-0551 EVENT; DATA; PHOTOGRAPHS; ITEM EVENT; MEASURING METHODS; GRAPHS; IONOSPHERE

UNK; UNK

Location - DOE/NNSA NUCLEAR TESTING ARCHIVE Address - P.O. Box 98521 City - Las Vegas State - NV Zip - 89193-8521 Phone - (702)794-5106 Fax - (702)862-4240 Email - NTA@NV.DOE.GOV

REPORT

1985 Sep 01

Sanitized

0392

NV0051078

WT33EX

LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY

1994 Aug 26

2003 Sep 18

RADAR ECHOES HAVE BEEN OBSERVED DURING PREVIOUS ATOMIC DETONATIONS BUT WITH LITTLE ADDITIONAL DATA. MEASUREMENTS ON ECHO INTENSITY AND CHARA CTERISTICS WERE OBTAINED AND RECORDED BY USE OF AN X-BAND RADAR SYSTEM . TO ACCOMPLISH THE DESIRED RESULTS, THE VIDEO SIGNALS FROM THE AN/APQ -24 RADAR RECEIVERS, ONE LOCATED IN EACH OF TWO B-50D AIRCRAFT, WERE D ISPLAYED ON A CALIBRATED OSCILLOGRAPH AND PHOTOGRAPHED WITH A LOW-SPEE D CONVENTIONAL 35-MM MOVIE CAMERA AT 32 FRAMES/SEC AND A MODIFIED GENE RAL RADIO 651 AE OSCILLOGRAPH CAMERA OPERATING AT 27 FT/SEC. THE RADAR SIGNALS WERE DISPLAYED ON A DUMONT 294-A OSCILLOGRAPH WITH A 5XP11 CA THODE-RAY TUBE OPERATING AT A 12-KV ACCELERATION VOLTAGE TO OBTAIN SUF FICIENT LIGHT INTENSITY FOR RECORDING. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS THU S OBTAINED WERE USED FOR FURTHER ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE VALUE OF TH E DATA. PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THREE RECORDS OBTAINED SHOWS THAT, UND ER THE CONDITIONS THAT EXISTED, RADAR RETURNS WERE EASILY OBTAINED. TH E SOURCE OF THE RADAR RETURNS APPEARS TO BE LOCATED ON, OR VERY NEAR, THE EARTH'S SURFACE APPROXIMATELY 4 SEC AFTER DETONATION OF HIGH-YIELD BOMBS, AND CLOSE COINCIDENCE EXISTS BETWEEN THE ORIGIN OF THE RETURN AND THE LEADING EDGE OF THE SHOCK WAVE. AT TIME PERIODS OF LESS THAN 4 SEC, RETURNS WERE OBTAINED, AND THEIR POSITIONS WERE COMPARED WITH DIR ECT MEASUREMENT DATA ON SHOCK-WAVE POSITION. CORRELATION WAS AGAIN FOU ND TO EXIST BETWEEN THE ORIGIN OF THE RADAR RETURNS AND SHOCK-WAVE POS ITION. EVIDENCE WAS OBTAINED WHICH INDICATED THAT, WITHIN THE FIRST 2 SEC AFTER DETONATION, THE RADAR RETURNS FROM THE EXPLOSION WERE VISIBL E OVER THE LAND AREA OF THE SHOT ISLAND. DATA ON THE AMPLITUDE OF THE RETURN AS A FUNCTION OF TIME DID NOT INDICATE ANY SIGNIFICANT TREND, B UT THIS POINT CANNOT BE CONSIDERED CONCLUSIVE OWING TO THE SHORT PERIO D DEVOTED TO ANALYSIS. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT FURTHER DATA BE OBTAINED ON THIS PROBLEM DURING FUTURE OVERLAND TESTS. THE OBJECTIVE OF PROJEC T 8.3B WAS TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF AN ATOMIC DETONATION ON RADIO P ROPAGATION AT ALL FREQUENCIES. THERE ARE THREE SOURCES OF DATA FOR THE SE INVESTIGATIONS: 1) IONOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS AT ENIWETOK ATOLL IN TH E RANGE OF FROM 1 TO 25 MC BEFORE THE DETONATION TO MORE THAN 1 HR AFT ER. 2) TRANSMISSIONS IN PERIODS H-5 TO H+45 MIN FROM REMOTE LOCATIONS, SUCH AS OKINAWA, TRUK, AND YAP, PASSING THROUGH THE IONOSPHERE ON COU RSES NEARLY OVER THE ENIWETOK ATOLL AND RECEIVED AND RECORDED AT KWAJA LEIN AND MAJURO, HONOLULU, AND BIKINI, RESPECTIVELY. 3) TRANSMISSIONS OF SURFACE WAVES IN PERIODS H-5 TO H+5 MIN AT SHORT RANGE ON UHF, VHF, HF, AND LF THROUGH THE BLAST FROM A SHIP-TO-SHORE STATION AT ENIWETOK . THE RESULTS OF THE PROJECT DID NOT REVEAL ANY APPARENT EFFECT ATTRIB UTABLE TO RADIATION, BUT THE IONOSPHERIC RECORDINGS APPEARED TO REVEAL A DISPLACEMENT OF THE IONOSPHERE AS THE RESULT OF A SHOCK WAVE WHICH MIGHT HAVE CAUSED A DISRUPTION TO RADIO TRANSMISSION REFLECTED IN THE VICINITY OF THE BLAST SITE, OVER AN AREA OF UNDERMINED SIZE, IF THE PO INTS OF REFLECTION HAD BEEN SUFFICIENTLY NEAR THE BLAST SITE AND IF TH E PERIODS OF RECORDING HAD BEEN SUFFICIENTLY PROLONGED TO RECORD THE E FFECT. IT APPEARS THAT THE EFFECT OF THE SHOCK WAVE ON THE IONOSPHERE IS NOT THE RESULT OF ACTION ON THE LAYERS THEMSELVES BUT ON THE EARTH' S MAGNETIC FIELD. THIS IS BELIEVED TO BE THE FIRST INSTANCE THAT MANMA DE IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES HAVE BEEN RECORDED. THE RESULTS OF THE PRO JECT ARE SUCH AS TO WARRANT A RECOMMENDATION FOR A SIMILAR PROGRAM IN CONNECTION WITH SUBSEQUENT ATOMIC WEAPONS TEST, AND IT IS INDICATED TH E DATA OBTAINED ARE FAR MORE VALUABLE WHEN THE TESTS ARE CONDUCTED AT TIMES OTHER THAN DURING THE IONOSPHERIC CHANGES WHICH TAKE PLACE AT DA WN AND DUSK.