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Estimate of the energy released by a bomb explosion #14

Open FabriceSalvaire opened 2 years ago

FabriceSalvaire commented 2 years ago

A lot of witness provide videos of large explosions.

There is a well-known physic analysis to estimate the power of the explosion, that was unveiled by the British physicist G. I. Taylor from declassified images of the Trinity test in New Mexico in 1945. It is based on Buckingham π theorem.

Look at this doc for explanation.

To perform this computation, we need timed frames and the fov of the camera to estimate the scale of the fire ball.

Coedice commented 7 months ago

@FabriceSalvaire That sounds cool. Just pondering the impact on OSINT investigations, this is what I could come up with:

  1. Could be used to determine the quantity or kind of explosive used
  2. Could help to identify which combatant is responsible (if for example, one force is known for a particular kind of explosive)
  3. Could be relevant to discussions of proportionality and protection of civilians
  4. There might exist some national/international laws that give a maximum power for an explosive that you are allowed to use

Is there any other use for this information?

Further questions:

  1. Given the properties of the material a crater was formed in, as well as the crater's diameter, could the explosion energy be determined? If so, this would be much easier to develop, and would also work for explosions that were not captured on video, since it can be determined from satellite imagery
  2. Is it possible to determine which kind of explosive was used based only on the shape of the fire ball?