Zer_ said:
First we need to consider that a ground detonation results in a great deal of fallout, and in the case of war (where one country is trying to invade another) such detonations are tactically unsound. The only exception is when you are attempting to take out a fortified location such as Cheyenne Mountain.
Of course, WWIII could be an ideological battle. It really isn't that far-fetched if you think about it. In such a case, destruction, not invasion, would be the intended outcome.
Therumancer said:
In short he'd need to provide more information IMO, I confess to not being an expert, but this seems a lot like he's using the same assumption as movies like "Wargames" without taking progress into account.
Apparently, he is an expert, so maybe he'd know.
BTW, even a volcanic eruption (an explosion of sorts) sends dust into the atmosphere which can (and has, even recently) alter weather patterns.
I remember this cool summer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pinatubo
Global environmental effects
Space Shuttle (Mission STS-43) photograph of the Earth over South America taken on August 8, 1991, showing double layer of Pinatubo aerosol cloud (dark streaks) above high cumulonimbus tops
The powerful eruption of such an enormous volume of lava and ash injected significant quantities of aerosols and dust into the stratosphere. Sulfur dioxide oxidised in the atmosphere to produce a haze of sulfuric acid droplets, which gradually spread throughout the stratosphere over the year following the eruption. The injection of aerosols into the stratosphere is thought to have been the largest since the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, with a total mass of SO2 of about 17 million tons being injected?the largest volume ever recorded by modern instruments (see chart and figure).
This very large stratospheric injection resulted in a reduction in the normal amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface by roughly 10% (see figure). This led to a decrease in northern hemisphere average temperatures of 0.5?0.6 °C (0.9?1.1 °F), and a global fall of about 0.4 °C (0.7 °F).[17][18] At the same time, the temperature in the stratosphere rose to several degrees higher than normal, due to absorption of radiation by the aerosols. The stratospheric cloud from the eruption persisted in the atmosphere for three years after the eruption.
Satellite measurements of ash and aerosol emissions from Mount Pinatubo.
The eruption had a significant effect on ozone levels in the atmosphere, causing a large increase in the destruction rate of ozone. Ozone levels at mid-latitudes reached their lowest recorded levels, while in the southern hemisphere winter of 1992, the ozone hole over Antarctica reached its largest ever size until then, with the fastest recorded ozone depletion rates. The eruption of Mount Hudson in Chile in August 1991 also contributed to southern hemisphere ozone destruction, with measurements showing a sharp decrease in ozone levels at the tropopause when the aerosol clouds from Pinatubo and Hudson arrived.
Another noticeable effect of the dust in the atmosphere was the appearance of lunar eclipses. Normally even at mid-eclipse, the moon is still visible although much dimmed, but in the year following the Pinatubo eruption, the moon was hardly visible at all during eclipses, due to much greater absorption of sunlight by dust in the atmosphere.
A very large explosion (nuclear or not) will send dust and debris into the atmosphere.
Several detonations (as in a WWIII scenario) would be disastrous.
