Radioflash is a term used (chiefly in sources from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
) in early literature on the phenomena now known more widely as
nuclear electromagnetic pulse
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (nuclear EMP or NEMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation created by a nuclear explosion. The resulting rapidly varying electric and magnetic fields may couple with electrical and electronic systems to produce ...
, or EMP. The term originated in the early 1950s, primarily associated with the "click" typically heard on radio receivers when a nuclear bomb was detonated. It was later discovered that the phenomena was one part of the more wide-ranging set of effects resulting from EMPs after the detonation of a
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
.
Instrumentation failures observed during
nuclear weapons testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...
between 1951 and 1953 were mentioned in
declassified
Declassification is the process of ceasing a protective classification, often under the principle of freedom of information. Procedures for declassification vary by country. Papers may be withheld without being classified as secret, and event ...
military literature as attributed to "radiated radioflash".
[O'Keefe, Bernard J., ''Nuclear Hostages'', Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1983.][Baum, Carl E., "Reminiscences of High-Power Electromagnetics," IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat. Vol. 49, No. 2. pp. 211–218. May 2007]
/ref> A similar term was first used in the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in an early theoretical publication (which contained some errors and was later corrected) on the effects of a nuclear explosion.[Kompaneets, Aleksandr Solomonovich; "Radio Emission from an Atomic Explosion". Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics (Журнал экспериментальной и теоретической физики), Vol. 35. December, 1958 (in Russian).]
The term has also been used during the 1970s in high-energy physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and b ...
in describing a type of collective ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...
that would take place during intense solar flares
A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other solar phe ...
.[Gershtein, S.S.]
The Collective Acceleration Mechanism of Solar Cosmic Rays.
Institute of High Energy Physics, Serpukhov, 1978.
See also
* Operation Fishbowl
Operation Fishbowl was a series of high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 that were carried out by the United States as a part of the larger ''Operation Dominic'' nuclear test program. Flight-test vehicles were designed and manufactured by Avco ...
* Operation Grapple
Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the P ...
* Soviet Project K nuclear tests
The Soviet Union's K project nuclear test series was a group of five nuclear tests conducted in 1961–1962. These tests followed the 1961 Soviet nuclear tests series and preceded the 1962 Soviet nuclear tests series.
The K project nuclear t ...
* Starfish Prime
Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States, a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Defense Atomic Support Agency. It was launched from Johnston Atoll on July 9, 1962, and was the larges ...
References
{{Reflist
Electromagnetic radiation
Energy weapons
Nuclear weapons
Electronic warfare