3D sparse point reconstructions of atmospheric nuclear detonations

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have started digitizing technical films spanning the above ground atmospheric nuclear testing operations conducted by the United States from 1950 through the 1960s. This technical film test data represents unique information that can be use as a primary validation data source for nuclear effects codes that are used by national researchers for assessments on nuclear force management, nuclear detection and reporting, and nuclear forensics mission areas. Researchers at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) have begun employing modern digital image processing and computer vision techniques to exploit this data set and determine specific invariant features of the early dynamic fireball growth. The focus of this paper is to introduce the methodology used for three dimensional sparse reconstructions of nuclear fireballs. Also discussed are the the difficulties associated with the technique.