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CARL SAGAN
RICHARD TURCO
CARL SAGAN is the David Duncan Professor of
Astronomy and Space Sciences and director of
the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell
University. A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, he is also
creator of the television series Cosmos. RICHARD
TURCO is professor of atmospheric sciences at the
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and
has been awarded the MacArthur Prize Fellowship.
With their colleagues, Ors. Turco and Sagan
are
co-recipients of the American Physical Society's
Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest
for the discovery of nuclear winter. They have been
active in advising the Congress, the Department of
Defense, other government agencies, and the leaders
of many nations on the long-term consequences of
nuclear war.
Jacketco ncept: JonLo mberg
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New YorNk.,Y. 10022
Printed in the U.S.A. ll /90 © 1990 RandoH;rl'l1u.<e, Inc,
3 2 0 3
DISTANCE FROM GROUND ZERO(MLESI
A one-megaton nuclear explosion detonates a few kilometers above
New York City. The fireball radiation, traveling at the speed of light,
has already ignited flammable structures ten miles and more from the
city center. The shock wave, traveling at the speed of sound, has not
yet reached the city. The twin towers of the World Trade Center can
be seen at right.
As the nuclear shock wave is leaving the city, skyscrapers and most
buildings have been blown down. Fires are momentarily extin
guished by the blast wave, and smoke is propelled away from the city.
Looming over the scene is the mushroom cloud, which sucks debris
up to high altitudes-into the lower stratosphere for a groundburst of
yield greater than about 200 kilotons.
0
DISTANCE FROM GROUND ZERO (MILES)
The shock wave has passed. Many fires ignited by the fireball, and
others-set, for example, from broken or demolished gas mains
begin to rage.
•
"9 a 2 1 o 1 2 -3- ' · s e 1 · :C
. • • DISTANCE FROM GROUND LES . �
The fires spread and merge over an area of 100 square miles or
more. Great clouds of roiling black smoke rise above the fires.
DISTANCE FROM GROUND ZERO (MILES)
The inferno becomes a firestorm. Like a roaring fire in a fireplace
with the flue open, but on a vastly larger scale, a huge column of
convective air establishes itself, sucking up flames and carrying
smoke to high altitudes. Winds in the firestorm can exceed hurricane
force.
DISTANCE FROM GROUND ZEAO (MILES)
Many days later, hovering over the flattened city is a vast smoke
pall extending into the stratosphere. Simultaneous development, and
subsequent spreading and merging, of many such soot clouds at many
altitudes can lead to nuclear winter.
[Reference: R. P. Turco, 0. B. Toon, T. P. Ackerman, J.B. Pollack,
and C. Sagan, "The Climatic Effects of Nuclear War," Scientific
American 251 (2), August 1984, 33-43; reprinted in Russian in V Mire
Nauki, October 1984, 4-16. Courtesy, Scientific American.]
Some Other Books by Carl Sagan:
Intelligent Life in the Universe (with I. S. Shklovskii)
The Cosmic Connection
The Dragons of Eden
Broca's Brain
Murmurs of Earth (with others)
Cosmos
The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War
(with others)
Comet (with Ann Druyan)
Contact
Also by Richard Turco:
Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War (with others)
A PATH
WHERE NO MAN THOUGHT
A PATH
WHERE NO MAN THOUGHT
OARl SABAN RICHARD lUROO
NUClEAR WINTER
AND THE END Of THE ARMS RACE
�
(!ii.El
RANDOM HOUSE NEW YORK
