CHAPTER 4
Surveillance, communications, delivery, and weapons. These four were the chief headings under which military applied its combined strengths to produce the new and hopefully saving technologies designed to end what had been initiated. Filled with the sense that they were indeed planning the future of the world, these researchers excused their consciences and went on with their new occupations. Information was coming in from everywhere. Analysts were everywhere. The first line of research necessarily engaged the nuclear weapons “problem” direcdy. The first problem dealt with the possibility of a first strike from the perceived enemy. What could one expect? After all, the Allies were not under the bombs used in Japan. The most dreadful experience to which they were exposed took them through the streets of the devastated cities, those deemed unclean by their own people. And this phase, the aftermath was horrifying. What measures would be required for a military core group to maintain command perspective during a possible nuclear assault. The problem was a necessary horror to face. Therefore data of the first several tests would necessarily have to be scrutinized.
Whenever explosive releases of nuclear energy are engaged, a host of strange and unforeseen geophysical effects follow. These suites of effects, the consequences of unknown energetic correspondences and modulations, provoked a great deal of intrigue among the many gathered scientific researchers. The several test detonations of both nuclear fission and nuclear fusion devices were followed by a host of unexpected natural phenomena, which trained observers were quick to recognize. Of greatest note were the more direct impacts on both personnel and measuring equipment. Nuclear testing produced ancillary phenomena, unexpected occurrences, providing certain new weapons development possibilities. One such phenomenon provoked a line of research which led directly to the development of modern beamray weapons. Comprehending the geophysical nature of nuclear detonations was a gradual realization having several immediate consequences. Nuclear explosions impacted both the magnetic and dielectric fields of the whole planet in ways which suggested new weapons themes.
The first few research tests of relatively low yield nuclear weapons burned out sensitive instrument packages which had been placed at a safe distance from the blast effects. This could not be explained. When heavy shielding failed to block the burn phenomenon, engineers became suspicious that another effect had been stimulated. Furthermore, when local power systems experienced complete “burnout”, an effect which occurred at the very instant in which the nuclear test charge had been detonated, there was no doubt as to the cause. Here was an electrical impulse effect which, in this instance, could not truly be explained. How was the sudden and tremendous volume of current generated by a nuclear blast? Close study of the blast dynamic itself produced no real answer.
There was a sequence to the progress of a nuclear blast, details which unfolded themselves within microseconds. Analysis of the total energetic output of a nuclear fission explosion reveals the continuous spectrum of energetic forms. Every octave in the electromagnetic spectrum is thoroughly covered in such a blast The initial radiation of a nuclear blast, consisting of intense infrared, ultraviolet, X-Rays, and Gamma Rays, expands outward to a diameter exceeding one mile. Absorbed by the atmosphere, this deadly radiation Shockwave heats the very air to incandescence. This radiation shockwave is lost to the distant surroundings in a few microseconds. With this radiation shock, a powerful neutron flux showers the surrounding area to within one mile from the blast epicenter. As the fireball rises, the incandescent air itself radiates hard infrared, ultraviolet, and X-Rays in a continuous and bright display. This plasma radiant irradiation of the surroundings continues even as the blast ring is escaping into the upper atmosphere. These rays, a wide and combined spectrum of deadly content, thoroughly roast the surroundings. Because of the complete electromagnetic coverage by the fireball. This is the source of that “second” and prolonged heat which nuclear observers have so often reported. The effects had devastating import for military scientists, effects which they had never anticipated.
Once the initial radiative components of the blast were dispersed to the surroundings, the heated ball of plasma impacted the surrounding air. Shaped by temperature differentials and the continuous supply of inrushing air, this plasma ball became a plasma ring. Rotating “from the inside out”, the plasma vortex rose as a deadly conflagration. But the rising plasma ring began manifesting other macroscopic features which could not be simply derived from analysis of the aerodynamic differentials alone. How was the coherent emergence of an electrical current, to be explained. In such a hot plasma, one whose convolutions are massive and chaotic, there can be no development of microscopic order unless some formative agency induces that order…from the outside. To explain the “mechanism” by which electrons are apparently driven around the rising plasma ring, one must seriously bend the laws of electrodynamics. But many began appreciating the fact that this powerful electrical nature, this manifestation of internal order in chaos, could only be derived from the available formative forces in the environment Indeed, without a consideration of coupling effects more “geophysical” in nature, there was no logical explanation for the electrical organization.
It became obvious that the plasma ring interacted in strange ways with the dielectric field of the earth itself, drawing the vertical field lines into itself. The mere presence of the highly energetic plasma represented a dynamic and electro-permeable volume having fluidic attributes. The plasma ring was the focal point of a process in which all of the dielectric field energy surrounding the blast site were forcibly pulled into the fireball. The rising plasma ring effectively became the plate of an immense capacitor, gathering charge and mounting in saturate density. This gave rise to the lightning discharges often seen associated with test shots in an ordinarily blue sky environment. This increased dielectric permeability required special locations for the maximum nuclear effect, a fact not widely considered. The notion of nuclear detonations as geoelectric or even as geomagnetic modulators began to occupy the minds of researchers now.