Lamb waves from airborne explosion sources: Viscous effects and comparisons to ducted acoustic arrivals

Observations of large explosions in the atmosphere at long range are dominated by a leading pulse of large amplitude and long period that is often followed by a series of higher frequency impulses usually of smaller amplitude. This description can be interpreted using linearized acoustic-gravity wave theory in terms of a Lamb wave arrival followed by ducted acoustic and/or gravity waves. This pattern of arrivals is not the same at all ranges nor is it independent of the source energy or of the altitude of the source. Earlier, Pierce, using an isothermal, windless atmospheric model, theoretically formulated the distances beyond which the Lamb wave would just be discernible and also where it would dominate the arriving signals for a specified explosion source. In this work the authors have evaluated these distances for the cases of both an inviscid and a viscous fluid for the source energies of interest to the CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) R and D work at Los Alamos. Although the inviscid results are analytic, the fully viscous solutions are iterative. For the inviscid solutions, the authors find that the Lamb wave domination distance is proportional to wave frequency at frequencies large with respect to the acoustic waveguide cut-off frequency. Under similar conditions they also find that the computed distances are linearly proportional to the source height. At 1 Hz for example, the Lamb wave must propagate about 200 km before having a significant amplitude. For a viscous fluid they found slight increases in the distances compared to an inviscid fluid with the lower frequencies, near the acoustic cut-off frequency, exhibiting the greatest changes. During the period from 1981--1994 at Los Alamos, they have also observed infrasound from eight point source, near-surface ANFO explosions at White Sands Missile Range events even though the ducted acoustic waves were observed. In this work, they will compare the current theory against some of these observations