Skip to main content

The Medical Implications of Nuclear War (1986) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

5 Nuclear Winter: The State of the Science
Pages 136-140

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 136...
... In the following, I describe the principal types of contamination and the uncertainties aKendant upon calculations of the atmospheric effects, given our present, limited knowledge. The fireballs caused by nuclear weapons directed against hardened m~itary targets and therefore detonated at ground level would contain large numbers of dust particles in the submicron size that is, with typical dimensions of less than one ten-thousandth of a centimeter as well as large amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOx)
Read the entire page →
From page 137...
... In contrast, the second set of uncertainties can be estimated by a process illustrated in the following example. A moderate amount of observational data exists concerning large fires in irregularly littered solid fuel, such as would be found in a city in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion (McMahon, 1983~.
Read the entire page →
From page 138...
... It also requires estimates of the fraction of smoke particles that would remain at submicron size during their ascent in the smoke plume, despite their coagulation and incorporation into moisture condensation droplets Mat would form at the higher altitudes. I would assert that the uncertainty factor for the fuel supply is not less than two, that the uncertainty factor in the fraction burned is not less than two, that the uncertainty factor in the fraction of fuel burned that becomes smoke is not less than three, and that the uncertainty factor in the nonagglomerated fraction of the total smoke is not less than three.
Read the entire page →
From page 139...
... A variety of computational models have been applied to the baseline war scenario described above and to some variations on that case (NRC, 1985; Crutzen and Birks, 1982; Turco et al., 1983; McCracken, 1983; Thompson et al., 1984~. The results must be interpreted with care, but they boil down to the suggestion that the atmospheric response to smoke injection on the order of 180 million tons, as estimated using currently available computational models, would include temperature changes that could be of serious concern.
Read the entire page →
From page 140...
... Paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Air Pollution Control Association, Atlanta, Georgia, June 19-24. National Research Council.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • million tons
  • smoke particles
  • submicron size
  • fuel supply
  • atmospheric degradation

  • submicron smoke
  • major nuclear
  • atmospheric effects
  • nitrogen oxides
  • fuel burned

  • computational models
  • lower atmosphere
  • atmospheric response
  • temperature changes
  • quantitative estimates

  • temperature drops
  • global consequences
  • weapons exchange
  • existing mathematical
  • dimensional models

  • ultraviolet radiation
  • factor associated
  • ground level
  • threat depends
  • multiple nuclear

  • significant contamination
  • exists concerning
  • weapons scenario
  • data exists
  • major weapons


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.