What does the term nuclear winter refer to?

when the nucler accident , some somke in the air , due to this ,the aletra violet ray does not reach the atomsphere of the earth.so the temptear discrease. that is called nuclear accident.

edit: nuclear winter refers to a long-term cooling of the Earth's climate following a massive nuclear war. Nuclear weapons, as we all know, pack a lot of power into a small device. If a large number were detonated over short time period it would result in a lot of debris in the atmosphere. This debris would be of a type that would likley stay suspended in the atmosphere at high altitude. It is believed that this high-altitude debris would reflect a significant portion of the sun's rays, not allowing them to reach into the lower atmosphere or to Earth. As a result, the climate would cool significantly, resulting in a long, cold winter (depending on the amount of debris, one long cold winter season to several years or decades of very cold weather).

Similar effects have been seen from large volcanic eruptions which through large amounts of fine ash into the air. Krakatoa, Pinatubo, and Mt. Saint Helens all resulted in raising the Earth's effective albedo (the amount of light reflected back to space) and produced a measurably cooler climate over large portions of the planet.

First answer by ID0000000000. Last edit by Dsandstrom. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 74 [recommend question]