"The Effects of Snow Cover on the Dynamic Pressure of Nuclear Detonatio" by Adam Card and Andrew W. Decker
 

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Abstract

Blast pressure is the primary military targeting metric for nuclear weapons. Any local conditions that affect blast pressure have the potential for altering nuclear plans, both from defensive and offensive standpoints. Understanding the impact of snow to the blast wave, therefore, provides a benefit both to military planners and to warfighters on the ground, for any operation occurring in arctic environments. No existing data provides a quantitative description of how snow on the ground affects a nuclear detonation blast wave passing over it. Similar blast waves passing over dust have experimentally proven to enhance blast pressure in a localized region.1 This research seeks to understand the snow lofting mechanism and determine quantitative results to dynamic and total pressures within the blast wave. The research strategy selected to investigate this topic included conducting several scale experiments using a shock tube. Shock waves, once produced, are very similar regardless of source. If a lab-created shock front transited over snow or a snow-proxy, researchers could determine the pressure delta by comparing those measurements against similar data recorded from a shock front passing over an ideal surface. This result could then improve the understanding of how shock waves created by detonations behave in larger correlating environments.

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Countering WMD Journal

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