ELECTRON DENSITY PROFILES OF WAVEMOTIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE CAUSED BY NUCLEAR DETONATIONS

Horizontally traveling waves in the ionosphere, occurring naturally and from nuclear detonations, cause nonvertical reflections and, therefore, abnormal ionospheric recordings at stations during overhead passage. It is shown how an electron density cross-section in the vertical plane through an iono...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gassmann, George J.
Other Authors: AIR FORCE CAMBRIDGE RESEARCH LABS HANSCOM AFB MA
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1963
Subjects:
Atmospheric Physics
*IONOSPHERE
ELECTRONS
NUCLEAR PROPERTIES
Novaya Zemlya
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0626694
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0626694
Description
Summary:Horizontally traveling waves in the ionosphere, occurring naturally and from nuclear detonations, cause nonvertical reflections and, therefore, abnormal ionospheric recordings at stations during overhead passage. It is shown how an electron density cross-section in the vertical plane through an ionospheric wave can be constructed from a single station's ionospheric recordings, provided those are taken at time intervals not exceeding 5 minutes and provided the general direction of travel is known. The described analysis yields also an approximate value for the velocity. Examples are shown of profiles of ionospheric waves from two different nuclear detonations, observed at great distances. The ionospheric wave of 30 October 1961 from Novaya Zemlya appears to be caused by a gravity wave, as may be inferred from a table which gives a review of world-wide observations.

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