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£6
paint on several panels of the underside skin of the left horizontal 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.
At the attained position
3~enre
the recorded thermal energy received was GL. say
less than predicted.
_..
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 Ailinginee.
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 amount 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 sched~
uled for the BRAVO crater.
AFWUHC
The Bikini airstrip was contaminated to
;
43