J. Ralph Johler

Abstract: Radioactive fallout from a nuclear event can accumulate on the ground until there is sufficient ionizing radiation to overcome the ion-ion recombination processes, causing ions to persist in the air near the surface of the ground. A new theoretical approach to ground wave propagation calculation was developed to handle these circumstances. A fallout model based on AEC data was used as input to the computer program to compute the propagation of a 100 kHz ground wave signal. The additional attenuation over normal conditions for the worst possible case is 12 dB at a distance of 100 km.

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