paint on several panels of the wnderside skin of the left hori-

zontal stabilizer, and a burned rubber coupling on the in-flight
refueling manifold in the bomb bay area.
Two discrepancies in the preliminary analysis of the data
were still unexplained at this writing.
the recorded thermal energy received was'

At the attained position
nee
=

less than predicted.

armenee

The maximum recorded skin temperature rises

ranged from zero to forty~three percent lower than predicted for
the recorded thermal input.

A thorough analysis of films of ground

zero were expected to substantiate the low thermal inputs confirm

ing the presence of suspected clouds in the area between Ground
Zero and the aircraft.
Because of the greater than expected yield and an adverse wind
condition, a large amount of persistent fall-out occurred at various
atolls east of Ground Zero; namely, at Rongerik, Rongelap, Utirik

and Ailinginae.

On previous shots the fall-out had been at sea

where there were no instruments to record its location and intensity.
Weather forecasts indicated that the BRAVO fall-out would barely miss
these atolls, but a slight wind change, probably no more than ten percent, carried the fall-out directly over the eastern atolls of the
Marshall Islands.

A large amowt of fall-out occurred in the Bikini

area, which resulted in a revision of the shot schedule, both as to
time and location.

ILLUSTRATION 12, opposite page, shows Bikini Atoll

and location of the five shots fired there.

Since no one was able to

work in the area, the next shot was postponed for two days and scheduled for the BRAVO crater.

The Bikini airstrip was contaminated to

ees
A

AFWURC

Select target paragraph3