{"id": 1033220, "name": "Area that can be destroyed by nuclear weapons in a first strike", "unit": "square kilometers", "createdAt": "2025-05-21T11:46:30.000Z", "updatedAt": "2025-05-21T11:46:30.000Z", "coverage": "", "timespan": "1945-2010", "datasetId": 7095, "shortUnit": "km\u00b2", "columnOrder": 0, "shortName": "nuclear_warheads_area", "catalogPath": "grapher/war/2025-05-15/strategic_nuclear_forces/strategic_nuclear_forces_monadic#nuclear_warheads_area", "descriptionShort": "Measured in square kilometers.", "descriptionProcessing": "- The area that can be destroyed by nuclear weapons of a certain yield is calculated based on Richelson, Jeffrey. 1980. Evaluating the Strategic Balance. American Journal of Political Science 24(4): 782. We assume each equivalent megaton can destroy 20 square miles, which is equivalent to 51.8 square kilometers.", "type": "float", "datasetName": "The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset", "datasetVersion": "2025-05-15", "nonRedistributable": false, "display": {"unit": "square kilometers", "shortUnit": "km\u00b2"}, "schemaVersion": 2, "processingLevel": "major", "presentation": {"topicTagsLinks": ["Nuclear Weapons", "War & Peace"]}, "descriptionKey": ["This data refers to the destruction of unprotected structures, such as building and factories.", "For reference, the world's current total urban land area is around 1.9 million square kilometers.", "We calculate the destroyable area by multiplying the equivalent megatonnage of all warheads with the approximate area destroyed by one megaton (20 square miles) and then converting it into square kilometers.", "A \"megaton\" is the explosive energy released by one million tons of TNT. For comparison, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 0.015 and 0.021 megatons, respectively.", "An equivalent megaton is a way of making the explosive energy of different warheads comparable. It weighs small warheads \u2014 in this case those with at most one megaton \u2014 more than large ones, because they are relatively more destructive.", "The warheads included here are strategic ones \u2014 those designed for use away from the battlefield, such as against military bases, arms industries, or infrastructure.", "Only those strategic warheads are included that could be deployed \u2014 those that could be carried by ballistic missiles, bombers, and submarines in one strike.", "The exact number of countries' warheads is secret, and the estimates are based on publicly available information, historical records, and experts' estimates."], "dimensions": {"years": {"values": [{"id": 1964}, {"id": 1965}, {"id": 1966}, {"id": 1967}, {"id": 1968}, {"id": 1969}, {"id": 1970}, {"id": 1971}, {"id": 1972}, {"id": 1973}, {"id": 1974}, {"id": 1975}, {"id": 1976}, {"id": 1977}, {"id": 1978}, {"id": 1979}, {"id": 1980}, {"id": 1981}, {"id": 1982}, {"id": 1983}, {"id": 1984}, {"id": 1985}, {"id": 1986}, {"id": 1987}, {"id": 1988}, {"id": 1989}, {"id": 1990}, {"id": 1991}, {"id": 1992}, {"id": 1993}, {"id": 1994}, {"id": 1995}, {"id": 1996}, {"id": 1997}, {"id": 1998}, {"id": 1999}, {"id": 2000}, {"id": 2001}, {"id": 2002}, {"id": 2003}, {"id": 2004}, {"id": 2005}, {"id": 2006}, {"id": 2007}, {"id": 2008}, {"id": 2009}, {"id": 2010}, {"id": 1960}, {"id": 1961}, {"id": 1962}, {"id": 1963}, {"id": 1949}, {"id": 1950}, {"id": 1951}, {"id": 1952}, {"id": 1953}, {"id": 1954}, {"id": 1955}, {"id": 1956}, {"id": 1957}, {"id": 1958}, {"id": 1959}, {"id": 1945}, {"id": 1946}, {"id": 1947}, {"id": 1948}]}, "entities": {"values": [{"id": 171, "name": "China", "code": "CHN"}, {"id": 3, "name": "France", "code": "FRA"}, {"id": 137, "name": "India", "code": "IND"}, {"id": 101, "name": "Pakistan", "code": "PAK"}, {"id": 12, "name": "Russia", "code": "RUS"}, {"id": 81, "name": "South Africa", "code": "ZAF"}, {"id": 1, "name": "United Kingdom", "code": "GBR"}, {"id": 13, "name": "United States", "code": "USA"}]}}, "origins": [{"id": 3562, "titleSnapshot": "The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset - Monadic data", "title": "The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset", "descriptionSnapshot": "The original data exists in two different formats:\n1. In the dyadic format, each row in the data corresponds to a pair of states, and the nuclear capabilities of a state depends on the distance to the other state. For example, a country may have a certain number of warheads, but not all of them could be delivered to a very distant country.\n2. In the monadic format, each row corresponds to just one country. This data shows the nuclear capabilities of a state, regardless of what country they could be used against.\n\nThe current dataset is presented in monadic format.", "description": "This dataset describes times-series-cross-sectional information on all nuclear-armed states' strategic nuclear forces, and provides three indicators: the deliverable strategic warhead count, the equivalent megatonnage (EMT) index, and the counter military potential (CMP) index.", "producer": "Suh", "citationFull": "Kyungwon Suh - The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset, monadic data (2024).\n\nSuh, Kyungwon. 2022. \u201cNuclear Balance and the Initiation of Nuclear Crises: Does Superiority Matter?\u201d Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 60, No. 2 (March): 337-351. Doi:10.1177/00223433211067899.", "attribution": "Suh - The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset v2.0 (2023)", "attributionShort": "Suh", "versionProducer": "v2.0", "urlMain": "https://kyungwonsuh.weebly.com/datasets.html", "urlDownload": "https://kyungwonsuh.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/6/1/146191116/snforce2_monad.xlsx", "dateAccessed": "2025-05-15", "datePublished": "2024-01-30", "license": {"name": "CC BY 4.0"}}]}