This is interesting and counterintuitive — because of how the energy proportions itself (e.g. visible vs. infrared), kiloton-range nuclear weapons are brighter than megaton-range weapons, apparently.pic.twitter.com/AgRnRpBY8Y
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Bit surely 25% of megaton range is still way more than 45% of kiloton range ? Or am I missing something?
Not necessarily... It's possible that brightness is a wonky curve. Megaton thermal effects have a lot of energy, but in a very long pulse period. If what matters is the "tightness" of the energy curve (e.g., more energy in small time), then kiloton might be brighter.
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Yes good point. I wasn't thinking about duration of brightness.
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Also, according to Glasstone and Dolan, the surface temperature of the fireballs don't vary much with yield (though the size does). So that kind of complicates it all, esp. if you have a smaller percentage of energy released into the visual spectrum.
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