Air detonation

An air detonation ( English Airburst ) is the explosion of special types of military ammunition over the actual target in the air. These so-called projectiles are mainly used against enemy troops and unarmored vehicles. The principle can also be applied to nuclear weapons explosions.

The explosive breakup of an extraterrestrial object in the earth's atmosphere is also known as an airburst . The Chelyabinsk meteor caused one, just as the Tunguska event could have been caused by an airburst.

Web links

• Why Does a Meteor Explode in the Air? wired.com
• Russian Meteor's Air Blast Was One for the Record Books nationalgeographic.com
• The Meteor Over Russia: A Summary scienceblogs.de

See also

• Meteor over the Mediterranean (2002)
• TNT equivalent

Individual evidence

1. ^ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, p. 11, @ google books
2. ↑ Mark Boslough: Airburst Modeling. Pp. 665-692 in: Joseph N. Pelton, et al .: Handbook of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense . Springer, Cham 2015, ISBN 978-3-319-03951-0 .
3. ↑ Olga P. Popova, et al .: Chelyabinsk Airburst, Damage Assessment, Meteorite Recovery, and Characterization sciencemag.org, accessed July 31, 2015