On the Probability of Flying Through Nuclear Dust Clouds
Abstract
Since the Mount St. Helen's eruption, the dust clouds formed by a nuclear detonation have become of much more interest to the Air Force acquisition community. The dust from nuclear detonations can have a severe impact on aeronautical systems, such as engines, surface coatings, and wind screens. This paper presents an analytic approach to calculating the probability that an aircraft will encounter 0 to N dust clouds when flying through an area. Given the size of a rectangular area containing nuclear dust clouds, and the size and the number of the dust clouds, the probability of encounter can be easily calculated. This approach to calculating the probability of encounter is useful for system studies when the details of the nuclear attack that generates the dust clouds is not known. The method is suitable for implementation in a computer code or a spreadsheet.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 11, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA569040
Entities
People
- Brian Hockersmith
- John W. St. Ledger
Organizations
- Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center