What would be the effects of a nuclear explosion at the outer reaches of the atmosphere?

Question

In the animated film, the Iron Giant, the agent Manley manipulates events and people such that a nuclear missle is launched against the robot, The Iron Giant. The latter finally becomes able to realize its freedom of choice in order to save everybody by meeting the missile at a point in the farther reaches of the atmosphere.

Assuming a nuclear missile were exploded at a distance from the earth such as that where the Space Station orbits, what would be the effects of say, a nuclear explosion the magnitude of a Hiroshima-sized explosion?

Answer 1

I would think that if you were looking in the direction of the explosion you could suffer some temporary loss of visiion. It is unlikely you would hear the event since the sound energy would have dissipated to very low levels by the time it reached the ground. The radioactive material would be scattered in the high stratosphere and gradually some of it would rain back to earth. The initial blast would disrupt radio communications and there could be a lingering effect on the E layer(s) depending on the time of day. The blast would produce spectacular sunsets for a period of months owing primarily to the fact that dust in the upper atmosphere tends to stay suspended for much longer times than does dust in the troposphere. It would be difficult to list all the effects of this sort of event. However some very large explosive events have been observed in the otter atmosphere. These events are thought to have been the remenants of small cometary snow balls being instantly converted to steam as they hit the upper layers of the atmosphere and produce steam explosions.

Answer 2

In a way it has already happened ,and did u know anything???? There has been some high altitude nuclear explosions. I think if I remember correctly it was about 200 miles up. Well someone didn't calculate correctly as we had some satellite damage.

Answer 3

Aside from irradiating the upper atmosphere, it would blanket the world in the effect of one damn big EMP (electro-magnetic pulse), which would screw technology over for years.