Operation Argus (1958) Atmospheric Nuclear Tests

Courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office
Operation Argus was a series of nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted during August and September of 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean by the United States's Defense Nuclear Agency, in conjunction with the Explorer 4 space mission. Operation Argus was conducted between the nuclear test series Operation Hardtack I and Operation Hardtack II. Contractors from Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as well as a few personnel and contractors from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission were on hand as well. The time frame for Argus was substantially expedited due to the instability of the political environment [bans on atmospheric and exoatmospheric testing were forthcoming]. Consequently, the tests were conducted within a mere half year of conception (whereas "normal" testing took one to two years).
en.wikipedia.or...

[@nottherealpaulsmith]

to the whingers about "no footage of the explosions": the Argus detonations were tiny, less than 2 kiloton apiece there was no reason to attempt to shoot footage of them, each detonation would have looked like a white blip on an entire reel of solid black frames the Newsreel and more well-known Fishbowl shots were in the megaton and high kiloton ranges, hence why they actually showed up on film

[@chrisrogers2268]

Tell me again how hairspray put a hole in the ozone.

[@howiedewin3688]

That happened when DuPonts patent was about to expire.

[@AmerigoMagellan]

Google it.

[@walrus4248]

Flourocarbon propellants in the aerosol cans react with the ozone and deplete it.

[@davelowets]

Nukes sure as hell had nothing to do with it.

[@73jaydub]

I don't understand how you can even have a hole in GAS /Air 😂😂

[@Flyingrabbit2222]

The effect that blowing holes in our atmosphere has had on severe weather is never discussed.

[@davidlyall7346]

Don't worry. It was all fake. If you notice at 17:00 there are zero military personnel. At 17:15 when missile is launched, it's a different missile. All military tests are great frauds to scam money & why we use aircraft today developed 50 yrs ago.

[@micnorton9487]

​@@davidlyall7346 Yeah right dude,, these tests were done 60+ years ago... The military industrial complex drains money from the taxpayers yeah,, but these gadgets are very real...

[@TheWpelt]

It takes a genius to get that idea. Not only protecting the USA against all enemies, foreign and domestic, but also against natural disasters!

[@walrus4248]

The new book is about the Argus project which involved small nuclear bombs detonated at high altitude. It's a miracle to me that we all survived the nuclear arms race so far.

[@angusbeef524]

Did we???

[@user-jt5vm3mi1w]

Yes@@angusbeef524

[@wes11bravo]

Just you wait

[@Zoomer30]

Wow, the hazing rituals were a little disturbing.

[@walrus4248]

A new book just came out about this, it's a great historical video. It goes into the physics of the earth magnetic field which got tangled up in the arms race

[@supabass4003]

Name please!

[@AdamSteidl]

Makes me wonder, did we cause the South Atlantic (geomagnetic) Anomaly?

[@AdamSteidl]

@@GwladYrHaf good question

[@davelowets]

No

[@Conorscorner]

​@@davelowetswell that settles it, thanks for the over abundance of details to support your argument

[@Zoomer30]

IGY= International Geophysical Year.

[@Anne.411]

Surprised they didnt make a EMP happen???

[@houndogjohnson4013]

Sound track is along the edge of film. Natural degradation occurs first here. I'm sure it was restored as well as possible.

[@Lord_Shadowz]

Notice they showed no footage of the detonations.

[@aloysiusbelisarius9992]

Might have been "sanitized" out; I saw a little of detonation footage in a documentary made a couple years after this release, a sequel to Peter Kuran's "Trinity And Beyond," called "Nukes In Space: The Rainbow Bombs."

[@davelowets]

You can watch all the Starfish Prime detonations that you'd like... Same thing, really.

[@davidlyall7346]

Cause it's all fake, like all military tests.

[@rachelklein2319]

I'll never be out there looking for the aurora now. Could be natural...could be military-made...

[@paperbed]

I wonder how they made these graphical demonstrations back in the day.

[@fattmouth7715]

Walt Disney

[@davidlyall7346]

It's all fake. At 17:00 & 17:15 the missiles are different even. There are zero military personnel & actors with hand drills pretending to drill into missile. Operation Big Money. Just like today.

[@AmerigoMagellan]

So what were the yield of each nuke? He told us every except the yield.

[@aloysiusbelisarius9992]

Each one was roughly a kiloton, not large warheads at all. I'm thinking they dared not try to attract attention to themselves with bigger warheads, considering what Hardtack-Teak and -Orange had done. Still, a different source indicated that despite the tiny yields there was still sufficient ionosphere disruption to scramble radio communications in the Atlantic for a time.

[@jiveturkey9993]

@@aloysiusbelisarius9992 do you know what the altitude was when they exploded? He either didn't say it or I missed it.

[@aloysiusbelisarius9992]

@@jiveturkey9993 I do, from other sources. They shot the rockets 300 miles up, which is the lowest dip point of the Van Allen Belts. It was imperative that they got those warheads into the Van Allen Belts for the experiment to happen correctly, and the South Atlantic Anomaly was the lowest point and thus the best location candidate.

[@jiveturkey9993]

@@aloysiusbelisarius9992 okay that makes sense. I heard 7 Minutes burn time and I scratched my head? Thinking that's got to be some altitude but I didn't hear any numbers given.

[@jeremyperala839]

Im not a scientist, but it would seem to make sense to wait until there weren't clouds at the spot of the expected area before blowing off a nuclear weapon.

[@Ronbo710]

You seem extremely knowledgeable in this field. Could you please tell me the purpose of the rockets fired from the ground just before the bomb blast. They leave trails behind the blast cloud like the are used for measurements of some kind. Thanks :)

[@brothergrimaldus3836]

Ronbo710 to track shock wave propagation

[@johnsaathoff7732]

To collect data, as stated in film.

[@johnsaathoff7732]

To measure lateral pressure waves

[@Geckobane]

Those are the whatadoodles, they quantify the wiggywags.

[@povertyspec9651]

Those days were so much cooler than now!

[@Conorscorner]

Calm down satan

[@christopherliebler]

Funny how you never actually get to see the blast which I'm sure they have about 300 different angles from psychos

[@puncheex2]

You should also note that the release of these films to teh public is 20 years in our oast; a considerable amount of stuff that was secret then is not today.

[@420glass]

It's amazing The US Gov. can make and explode nukes in space But they can't make a good sound recording. LOL

[@Brokenrocktail]

420glass probably degraded over the years that's what the trembling sound is. It can be fixed in modern audio processing software but it seems they didn't bother yo coftect it before uploading. The reason everyone from the 50s and 60s have a strange voice is because of the frequencies the microphones picked up, again that could enhanced for the most part

[@yoshyusmc]

The US Government actually put together a film studio in Hollywood for the express purposes of hiring actors, filming the test and editing them into big time productions. They were originalyl classified for the top brass and President. President Eisenhower forced the release of some of the films because he felt that the public needed to know about the threat. The studio was considered top of line for its day compared to other studios.

[@davelowets]

The films are 70 years old what do you expect? 😆

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@Brokenrocktail That was probably state of the art at the time. Check out the difference in sound quality between "A Night to Remember" (1958) and Cameron's. "Titanic" (1997).

[@johnqwe3252]

I feel like i know everything already but then random things happen and what i know already come to.alignment here with everything weird af.

[@puncheex2]

Disney (and others) were doing animations in the 20s. Artists and cameras is all it takes.

[@davidlyall7346]

Notice at 17:00 & 17:15 the missiles are different. All fake. All personnel on "ship" are civvies. Operation Big Money.

[@badcompany-w6s]

WTH! Hazing?

[@MauriceLeviejr]

Typical

[@tnwhiskey68]

Trying to bounce stuff from one side to the other of the firmament?

[@matteocassino3172]

[42:19] "Pure scientific material of great value." With the disadvantage of contaminating the planet's atmosphere and surface!

[@theq4602]

WOW for a nuclear test film this sure did stir people up over (NON NUCLEAR RELATED THINGS) I wonder how many people here actually have the knowledge to talk the shit about bombs.

[@Outphase420]

David Vermillion All of them would rather talk about how the Earth is flat.

[@tinafoster8665]

What do u wanna kno? 2 stage, 3 stage fusion? Light vs heavy nuclear fuel? Using lithium 6 or 7, or boron 11?

[@uberkloden]

I learned a lot from the video. Great science. Atmospheric, and nuclear space war, at the last will cause major global cancer, mutations on plants and animals.

[@ChadLuciano]

....and those who participated had little to no idea what they were partaking in...the same programs and ops today I bet...

[@davelowets]

They knew, they knew...

[@ChadLuciano]

@@davelowets Only a few.

[@jimmyfabianmiranda]

This could have caused the South Atlantic Anomaly- SAA?!

[@AlphaFlight]

What does that mean

[@The_hungry_vegans]

@14:20 Chief who?

[@ashsmitty2244]

Evan Webb-Stuart It’s Cheif Asswap of course. 😂

[@whingebot]

Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP)

[@jojolafrite90]

Thanks for the free isotopes, you never now when you may need some unnatural isotropic ratios, right? Really, so thoughtful of you. This part of why our generations won't outlive our grand parents in average.

[@davelowets]

😆 NO...

[@christianhuntercascon888]

438

[@g1egz]

How can you use the statement, accepted theory, then use or quote Einstein ‘s theory of relativity, ?.

[@piotrmalik4908]

Theory of relativity, especially special relativity, which is adequate for the topic of this film, is a very well tested and confimedvtheory.

[@Zoomer30]

Still hard to think of August as "winter" 😂

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

Try living in britain!

[@davelowets]

@@dominicseanmccann6300 No thanks...

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

@@davelowets 😆😆😆

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

@@davelowets 😆😆😆😆 it's fucking grim!

[@jonathangonzalez1138]

I’m pretty sure the US asked Mexico, South America and Africa to take precautions and to shelter, what else are kids learning in School, ¿Duck 🦆 for Gunfire? Lame 😒

[@elcryptonaut]

WTF is going on starting at 19:20-12:12????

[@Brokenrocktail]

Nick Rodriguez that's not a valid range there bud..

[@MichaelBreen.]

19:27 to 20:11. Crossing the equator ceremony. Newbies getting hazed for initiation into the court of King Neptune.

[@tomdecuca3627]

Yes someone else said it there is ritual of going from a pollywog to shell back

[@g1egz]

12:50, wtf?..

[@Football__Junkie]

Ugh, I didn’t want to go back to physics class

[@aloysiusbelisarius9992]

I know, right? Presentation was so drab it could put a Soviet spy to sleep.

[@booklover6753]

Knowledge is power.

[@j.katehart1622]

@ 15:19. The earth is square, flat. It's a field.

[@merkabaenergy9558]

45.39

[@davidhudson5452]

Darpa early

[@igninis]

The most boring narration of that period documentaries.

[@aloysiusbelisarius9992]

Might have been deliberately done so, with the hopes of killing any Soviet spies who might have tried stealing it, through boredom.

[@thenightchild42069]

This sound is so fucked up. Theres Edison cylinder recordings from the 19th century that sound better.

[@merkabaenergy9558]

45:39

[@allgood6760]

I wonder if these detonations has anything to do with climate change or Ozone depletion? 🤔

[@MWcrazyhorse]

Trying to blow up the firmament or destroying the Nazi Arctic base? hmmm *mystery music* hmmmm

[@davelowets]

No

[@nottherealpaulsmith]

if you're trying to destroy a ground target then firing the rocket straight up in the air seems like a shit idea

[@MWcrazyhorse]

@@nottherealpaulsmith Maybe an EMP charge?!

[@steves8236]

Ooooo. He has a B/A in History. That's spelled "B.A." and if the rest of his grammer is any indication it wasn't worth the money.

[@Gpacharlie]

Well whoop dee doo

[@MJ-fj9yv]

You have.....nothing.

[@christianhuntercascon888]

Check out all this epoch pressure defficate reststructure sizzler steak house went out of business. Well now we can always blow up the sky what the hell

[@phattieg]

@BeyondNeptune And before you claim they need probable cause, read up on the Patriot act that Bush established.

[@cathybess1297]

A lot of people died.

[@j.katehart1622]

@ 23 :46. The earth is a face, flat, its square stable and reliable.

[@fattmouth7715]

This just seems like propaganda.