High-altitude nuclear explosion

The EMP observed at the Apia Observatory at Samoa was four times more powerful than any created by solar storms,[1] while in July 1962 the Starfish Prime test damaged electronics in Honolulu and New Zealand (approximately 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) away), fused 300 street lights on Oahu (Hawaii), set off about 100 burglar alarms, and caused the failure of a microwave repeating station on Kauai, which cut off the sturdy telephone system from the other Hawaiian islands.

The radius for an effective satellite kill for the Compton radiation produced by such a nuclear weapon in space was determined to be roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi).

[citation needed] In general, nuclear effects in space (or very high altitudes) have a qualitatively different display.

The charged particles resulting from the blast are accelerated along the Earth's magnetic field lines to create an auroral display at the conjugate point,[2] which has led documentary maker Peter Kuran to characterize these detonations as 'the rainbow bombs'.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, both the US and the USSR detonated several high-altitude nuclear explosions as a form of saber rattling.

Hardtack Teak , 1958
Frame of the Starfish Prime nuclear test
The mechanism for a 400 kilometres (250 mi) high-altitude burst EMP: gamma rays hit the atmosphere between 20 and 40 kilometres (12 and 25 mi) altitude, ejecting electrons which are then deflected sideways by the Earth's magnetic field
Late phases of TEAK fireball and formation of Northern Branch of Aurora as viewed from aircraft flying northwest of explosion.
Hardtack I Orange
View of Starfish Prime through thin cloud, as seen from Honolulu , 1,300 km away.
The debris fireball and aurora created by the Starfish Prime test, as seen from a KC-135 aircraft at 3 minutes.