Studies of Detonations at Ionospheric Altitudes under Project Red Lamp

摘要

Project RED LAMP consists of a series of launchings of sounding rockets with chemical payloads. The rockets are launched at the Eastern Test Range for the purpose of (a) Calibrating radio-frequency research instrumentation which is being used to study rocket phenomena. (b) Determining the position, growth and intensity of rocketgenerated shock waves. (c) Defining the electron density gradients of the shock wave. The report consists of two papers concerning results from two RED LAMP launches during May 1964. The first paper is concerned with the interpretation of radio and optical measurements of these two launches in terms of a spherical expansion of a blast wave. The second paper is concerned with the analogy between spherical and cylindrical explosions at ionospheric altitudes and the relation between point TNT explosions and a rocket plume. (Author)