Effects of Winds on Atmospheric Pressure Waves Produced by Hydrogen Bombs

MacKinnon, Robert F.

doi:10.2151/jmsj1965.46.1_45

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…H. Weston 1961V. H. Weston , 1962a; 341 Pfeffer & Zarichny 1962; Press & Harkrider 1962;Weston & Van Hulsteyn 1962;Clarke 1963;Harkrider 1964;Van Hulsteyn 1965;Pierce 1965bPierce , 1967aMacKinnon 1967MacKinnon , 1968aBalachandran & Donn 1968;Nelson, Singhaus & McNiel 1968;Balachandran 1968Balachandran , 1970Pierce, Posey & Iliff 1971. ) Notable exceptions to this general trend are the works of Row (1967), Hines (1967) and Tolstoy & Herron (1970), although these are concerned with waves which are propagating primarily in the ionosphere rather than near the Earth's surface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of the Excitation and Propagation of Lamb's Atmospheric Edge Mode from Nuclear Explosions

Pierce

Posey

2010

Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society

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A relatively simple theoretical model of near-surface pressure pulse propagation from nuclear explosions is developed from the hypothesis that the early portion of the pulse travels in the real atmosphere's counterpart of Lamb's edge mode. Various concepts of geometrical acoustics are used in the construction of the model. The pulse travels along horizontal ray paths which may be refracted by horizontal variations in the height-averaged effective sound speed and wind velocity. The dispersion of the pulse as it propagates along such paths is governed by a onedimensional wave equation similar to that derived by Korteweg & de Vries in 1895. Coefficients are found by comparison with the dispersion relation derived by Garrett in 1969 as an expansion in terms of a parameter E describing deviations of the atmospheric profile from isothermal. The method of incorporation of terms governing accumulative far-field non-linear effects is indicated. Height variations in propagating variables are approximated to zeroth order in E. Variations along horizontal ray paths are governed by the principle of conservation of modal wave action. The excitation of the edge mode is found by matching the general form of the far-field quasi-geometrical solution to the near-field solution for a point energy source in an isothermal atmosphere. Explicit expressions are given for the far-field pressure disturbance. Computations agree favourably with those based on a multimode theory for the first few cycles of the waveform. The edge mode theory leads to a number of implications, which may be compared with existing data. These include the prediction that the energy of the explosion yield may be estimated from a knowledge of the first peak-to-peak period and first peak-totrough pressure amplitude in far-field records with very little information concerning atmospheric structure, and the prediction that anomalous azimuthal variations in waveform amplitudes may be caused by focusing or defocusing of horizontal ray paths for the edge mode.

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