Starfish Prime

Starfish Prime was the name of a process performed by the United States nuclear tests in the Operation Fishbowl within the operation Dominic. Starfish Prime exploded on July 9, 1962 with an explosive force of 1,450 kilotons of TNT equivalent at an altitude of 400 kilometers. To perform the test, a Thor rocket was launched with a nuclear warhead from Johnston Atoll of which lies in the Pacific Ocean 1150 km southwest of Hawaii.

Starfish Prime was a high test of the warhead W -49, which was to examine the effects of the electromagnetic pulse.

The test produced polarlicht similar luminous phenomena over Hawaii and Kwajalein. This artificial Aurora stopped at seven minutes. As a result, an electromagnetic pulse put electronic devices in a wide radius lame on the surface beneath the explosion. The effects were still being felt on the 1300 km distant Oahu, Hawaii. The triggered by Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse was far stronger than expected, so that many of the instruments used were precipitated. In about 1445 km distant Hawaii fell from about 300 street lights, which in turn several intrusion detection systems are triggered. Due to the failure of a radio antenna, the telephone connections between Kauai and the other Hawaiian islands were temporarily suspended. Thus a wider public the phenomenon of nuclear electromagnetic pulse was known.

Released X-rays resulted in a number of years detectable ionization of the magnetosphere, allowing multiple satellites were damaged, including the first civilian communications satellite Telstar, which led to premature failure.

Starfish Prime was a repeat of the test Starfish, which should be carried out on 20 June 1962. However, the missile exploded at a height of nine kilometers without nuclear reaction, with parts of Iceland sand contaminated with plutonium.