Chemistry and spectroscopy of a fireball

This report describes the analysis of streak spectra from the 1956 Redwing-Navajo chord experiment and the 1952 Ivy-King experiment. Column densities of O/sub 3/, HNO/sub 2/, NO/sub 2/, and vibrationally excited O/sub 2/ are inferred from the spectra and related to computed column densities of gamma ray and neutron energy deposition. We also describe a fireball radiation transport, hydrodynamics, and chemistry computer model, which we use to make theoretical predictions of the column densities of molecular absorbers outside of a fireball. Computed results for Navajo and King are compared with the experimental data. We also show a computation of radiant power vs time for a generic 1-Mt fireball. 23 figures, 2 tables.