Operation Argus was a series of United States low-yield, high-altitude nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted from 27 August to 9 September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean. of what was then the Livermore branch of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) as a means to verify the Christofilos effect, which argued that high-altitude nuclear detonations would create a radiation belt in the extreme upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere. Such belts would be similar in effect to the Van Allen radiation belts. "Such radiation belts were viewed as having possible tactical use in war, including degradation of radio and radar transmissions, damage or destruction of the arming and fuzing mechanisms of ICBM warheads, and endangering the crews of orbiting space vehicles that might enter the belt." Prior to Argus, Hardtack Teak had shown disruption of radio communications from a nuclear blast, though this was not due to the creation of radiation belts.

Argus was implemented rapidly after inception due to forthcoming bans on atmospheric and exoatmospheric testing in October 1958. Because nuclear testing during this time was arguably a violation of the rules, the military borrowed International Geophysical Year equipment to disguise the nuclear tests. Gralla would later receive the Legion of Merit for his role conducting the tests expeditiously.

USS Albemarle

USS Albemarle, fresh out of an overhaul, was not listed on the TF-88 order. It set out to the Atlantic Ocean, supposedly as a shakedown cruise. It, too, had a COZI radar and other instrumentation for detecting man-made ionization. This instrumentation included International Geophysical Year (IGY) radiometers, receivers, radar, and optical equipment. After the IGY

equipment was added, it sailed to the ocean around the area of the Azores to record data at the geomagnetic conjugate point of the South Atlantic test site, as the rest of task force 88 headed to the South Atlantic to perform the tests. Even with the very minor threat of radiation exposure, precautions were taken to prevent radiological exposure. The task force commander and his staff had devised a series of precautionary radiation safe measures to be followed in each stage of the operation. Though the chance of exposure to radiation from these missiles was minute, the safety measures were performed as directed by the commander by the crew of Task Force 88. headlining it as the "greatest scientific experiment ever conducted". This was an unauthorized publication that caused great controversy among scientists because many of them were unaware of the presence of artificial particles in the Earth's atmosphere.

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!style="background:#efefef;" | Location

!style="background:#ffdead;" | Elevation + height

!style="background:#efefef;" | Delivery<br />Purpose

!style="background:#efefef;" | Device

!style="background:#ffdead;" | Yield

!style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" | Fallout

!style="background:#ffdead;" class="unsortable" | References

!style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" | Notes

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! 1

| 02:28:??

| style="text-align:center;" | WET (0&nbsp;hrs)<br /> || Launch from South Atlantic Ocean , elv: ;<br />Detonation over South Atlantic Ocean

| N/A +

| space rocket (> 80&nbsp;km),<br />weapon effect

| W-25

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Further reading

  • Chun, Lt. Col. Clayton K. S. Shooting down a "Star": Program 437, the US Nuclear ASAT System and Present-Day Copycat Killers. College of Aerospace Doctrine Research and Education. April 2000, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
  • Wolverton, Mark. Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space. New York: Abrams, 2018. .