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Peter Kuran's Nukes in Space: The Rainbow Bombs Archived 2016-10-10 at the Wayback Machine – documentary film from 1999; United States high-altitude test experiences – A Review Emphasizing the Impact on the Environment; Measured EMP waveform data and actual effects from high-altitude nuclear weapons tests by America and Russia
The effects of a nuclear explosion on its immediate vicinity are typically much more destructive and multifaceted than those caused by conventional explosives.In most cases, the energy released from a nuclear weapon detonated within the lower atmosphere can be approximately divided into four basic categories: [1]
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (nuclear EMP or NEMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation created by a nuclear explosion.The resulting rapidly varying electric and magnetic fields may couple with electrical and electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges.
Within the atmosphere, the effect is caused by the large volume of ionized air created by the energy of the explosion, while above the atmosphere it is due to the action of high-energy beta particles released from the decaying bomb debris. At high altitudes, the effect can spread over large areas, hundreds of kilometers.
The effects of smoke in the atmosphere (short wave absorption) are sometimes termed an "antigreenhouse" effect, and a strong analog is the hazy atmosphere of Titan. Pollack, Toon and others were involved in developing models of Titan's climate in the late 1980s, at the same time as their early nuclear winter studies.
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction.The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion-based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device.
So in bomb pulse dating it is the relative amount of 14 C in the atmosphere that is decreasing and not the amount of 14 C in dead organisms, as is the case in classical carbon dating. This decrease in atmospheric 14 C can be measured in cells and tissues and has permitted scientists to determine the age of individual cells and of deceased people.
At very high altitudes, at the edge of the atmosphere and above it, another effect comes into play. At lower altitudes, the X-rays generated by the bomb are absorbed by the air and have mean free paths on the order of meters. But as the air thins out, the X-rays can travel further, eventually outpacing the area of effect of the neutrons.