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The Origin of the Fluorescence Technique
Air fluorescence was studied in the early 1960's by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), then called the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The technique was investigated as a method for detecting the yield of nuclear explosions in atmospheric tests.
Many charged particles are expelled from a nuclear explosion, and these particles will also produce scintillation light as they pass through air. The amount of light collected can then be use to estimate the total amount of energy released from the device.
