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Nukes in Space
1999 · Film · documentary · 53 min
Part of The Atomic Bomb Collection
Directed by Peter Kuran
U.S. nuclear tests in space, and the development of the military intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
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This is important work. I would also recommend any of the Peter Kuran documentaries (Trinity and Beyond, Nukes in Space, Hollywood's Top Secret Film Studio).
What's really interesting about these is that there is a visible frame count on some of the videos and that you get to see a few frames before the detonation. E.g. the Androscoggin test opens on frame "-8" with the first flash visible at frame 0. You can see this by pausing the youtube videos and advancing frame by frame with the "." key.
There are a whole bunch of really interesting but rarely-seen effects that occur in those first one or two frames.
Here's an example from a different source of the "Teller Light" that immediately follows the initial release of gamma radiation from the initial nuclear fission in the bomb core: http://www.americancrisis.us/images/2013_08_30_013709_1_teller_light_2.jpg
There's a neat description of this in a paper from 1958 here:
"The glow is known begin immediately (well within a shake) after gamma irradiation of the air, and has an apparent brightness of the order of that of the sun."
https://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/4814701
It would be really interesting to see the first few high speed frames of a detonating multi-stage weapon. Presumably this would reveal details about the sequence of energy flow from the exploding fission stage to the compressed fusion stages. Indeed, there were diagnostic pipes like this fitted to some of the early H-bomb test devices, e.g. http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/IvyMikeDevB1600c20.jpg
Sadly, all of the multi-stage tests I have seen in public sources begin a few frames after detonation, or, like these, they are shot from far enough away that you just see a single diffuse glow.
The filmmaker behind TAB is Peter Kuran. He was a visual effects specialist for some pretty cool movies (e.g. Empire Strikes Back). Restoring old atomic test footage is a special interest of his and he's also done several more in-depth documentaries about atomic weapons:
Nuclear Rescue 911: Broken Arrows & Incidents
Atomic Filmmakers: Behind the Scenes
Atomic Journeys: Welcome to Ground Zero
Nukes in Space
Atomic Filmmakers is my favorite--it's sort of a "making of" for the historical footage used in the other movies and it talks about the secret Lookout Mountain film studio the Air Force set up outside LA to develop special technology to document and instrument above-ground nuclear tests.