![]() Further testing to this end was carried out, and embodied in a Department of Defense program, Program 437. The radius for an effective satellite kill for the various Compton radiation produced by such a nuclear weapon in space was determined to be roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi). The EMP observed at the Apia Observatory at Samoa was four times more powerful than any created by solar storms, while in July 1962 the Starfish Prime test, damaged electronics in Honolulu and New Zealand (approximately 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) away), fused 300 street lights on Oahu (Hawaii), set off about 100 burglar alarms, and caused the failure of a microwave repeating station on Kauai, which cut off the sturdy telephone system from the other Hawaiian islands. The potential as an anti-satellite weapon became apparent in August 1958 during Hardtack Teak. This high-altitude EMP occurs between 30 and 50 kilometers (19 and 31 miles) above the Earth's surface. The resulting transient electric fields and currents that arise generate electromagnetic emissions in the radio frequency range of 15 MHz to 250 MHz. These collisions create MeV-energy Compton electrons that then accelerate and spiral along the Earth's magnetic field lines. The gamma rays penetrate the atmosphere and collide with air molecules, depositing their energy to produce huge quantities of positive ions and recoil electrons (also known as Compton electrons). In the first few tenths of nanoseconds, about a tenth of a percent of the weapon yield appears as powerful gamma rays with energies of one to three mega-electron volts ( MeV, a unit of energy). The strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that results has several components. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 prohibits all nuclear testing whether over- or underground, underwater or in the atmosphere. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 banned the stationing of nuclear weapons in space, in addition to other weapons of mass destruction. The Partial Test Ban Treaty was passed in October 1963, ending atmospheric and exoatmospheric nuclear tests. ![]() Several such tests were performed at high altitudes by the United States and the Soviet Union between 19. High-altitude nuclear explosions are the result of nuclear weapons testing within the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere and in outer space.
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