Nuclear Bomb Test: Explosion, Mushroom Cloud and Measurements

Bomb released.

The crew puts on protective goggles.

The parachute system deployed exactly as calculated.

The bomb is approaching the detonation point.

Altitude: four thousand meters. Three seconds left, two, one, zero.

The explosion was accompanied by an extraordinarily powerful flash of light.

At that moment, the carrier aircraft was forty-five kilometers from the release point.

The flash and the glow that followed, despite the solid cloud cover, were visible up to a thousand kilometers away.

The column of dust rising from the ground quickly grew in volume.

A few seconds after the explosion, the dust column's diameter was about ten kilometers.

At the same time, from the aircraft, which was two hundred and fifty kilometers from the detonation point, a fiery dome of incandescent explosion products was visible.

As it grew larger, the cloud slowly rose.

At its final stage, it reached an altitude of sixty to sixty-five kilometers.

Its diameter was ninety kilometers.

Later, the cloud began to lose its mushroom shape.

Let's recall what the test site looked like before the explosion.

Now it looks very different.

For dozens of kilometers around, the ground was scorched by the blast.

Entrances to the underground instrument buildings were destroyed.

All the recording and measuring equipment at the test site worked properly.

The data obtained made it possible to determine the actual yield of the explosion, the nature of the nuclear reaction, the accuracy of the device's automatic triggering and a number of other factors.