Can anyone explain why these blasts have squiggly lines of smoke near them that look like jellyfish tentacles? The donation pic in this thread has them.
I’ve seen them in many pics of nuclear blasts, and don’t know what they are.
Those are trails from missiles launched to help determine yield.
Think of them as vertical lines that are used to measure the diameter of the mushroom cloud which can then be used to determine yield.
Smoke rockets are fired to study blast wave propogation and other things.
http://www.atomcentral.com/atomic-smoke-trails.aspx
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/SmokeTrails.html
In most cases the were behind the blast and the compressed air at the shockwave refracted the light making it look like the smoke trails bent at that point. Before today I thought they were in line with the blast to watch them being disrupted by the shockwave, but those articles said that didn't work well.
Yes. They launch a series of smoke rockets right before the blast.
The blast wave moves the air (which can't be seen), the air moves the smoke (which CAN be seen). measuring how fast and how far the smoke moves gives an accurate picture of the blast wave and allows an accurate check of the yield and potential damage (a fast shattering slam does more damage than a slower shove, even at the same net energy).
Smoke rockets to be able to photograph the progress of the blast wave.
Just prior to the shot rockets were launched to create the vertical smoke trails. Those trails were used as a visual reference for the observation of the blast wave.
They are simply to assist in observing the plume dynamics.