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I am looking for data source (or chart) of spectral data that is being emitted on detonation of nuclear or thermonuclear explosion. Reason I am looking is to see if this data has specific signature that would allow to differ it from the 'normal' radiation that stars emit. I would assume during nuclear explosion there's a lot more gamma radiation percent-wise from total radiation compared to solar witch should have less of it.

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  • $\begingroup$ Medium, medium, medium. The outcome depends on the environment of detonation. And while we can guess what that is for the Earth, it may be difficult to quantify for exoplanets. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Jul 4, 2014 at 20:25

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This is a hard question to answer, in the end. However, be assured that long, long, ago we started looking for nuclear expositions by looking for X and gamma radiation using the Vela satellites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_(satellite). These did not find much in the way of violations of the nuclear test ban treaties but did discover astronomical objects called Gamma-ray bursters. The reason the "spectrum" question is hard to answer, particularly in the context of detection of nuclear explosions is that much of the X-ray radiation comes from how hot the explosion gets. And, much of the X and gamma radiation is absorbed reasonably quickly in the surrounding fireball.

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    $\begingroup$ Bingo. Atmospheric nuclear explosions produce a unique signature, often called a "double-humped curve": a short and intense flash lasting around 1 millisecond, followed by a second much more prolonged and less intense emission of light taking a fraction of a second to several seconds to build up. The effect occurs because the surface of the early fireball is quickly overtaken by the expanding atmospheric shock wave composed of ionised gas.... No single natural phenomenon is known to produce this signature. To bad no data on wavelengths, but this is definitely something. $\endgroup$
    – Matas Vaitkevicius
    Jul 4, 2014 at 20:34

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