A model is proposed to account for the phenomenon of net current enhancement at high pressures recently observed on the Experimental Test Accelerator. The proposed mechanism involves energetic secondary electrons (delta rays) which are pushed forward by the self-magnetic field of the electron beam. For high current beams, the forward delta ray current can build up to a significant fraction of the beam current. Analytic calculations of the steady-state solution as well as the rate of buildup of the delta ray current are presented in this paper. In addition, numerical results from a nonlocal Boltzmann code, NUTS, are presented. The analytic and numerical results have many features which are in qualitative agreement with the experiments, but quantitative discrepancies still exist.

We have estimated the seismic moment for two Nevada Test Site (NTS) explosions (Nebbiolo, 6/24/82; Atrisco, 8/5/82) at the Regional Seismic Test Network (RSTN) station in South Dakota (RSSD; distance from NTS approx. 1280 km). The moments are calculated from the vertical component mid-period channel for the Rayleigh waves and the merged mid- and short-period band for the P waves. The moment estimates from surface waves give values of 1.0 x 10/sup 23/ and 2.0 x 10/sup 23/ dyn-cm for Nebbiolo and Atrisco, respectively. The body-wave moments obtained at 0.5 Hz are approximately five times greater than those from surface waves and give values of 4.8 x 10/sup 23/ and 1.0 x 10/sup 24/ dyn-cm for Nebbiolo and Atrisco, respectively. The apparent discrepancy between the body and surface-wave moments can be resolved if there is overshoot (of 5:1) in the explosion source spectrum. As a check on the absolute value of the surface-wave moments, we compared them to moment values predicted from empirical moment-yield relationships for different emplacement media at NTS (Patton, 1983). We found that the agreement between observed and predicted values is satisfactory, within the measurement error on the moments at the one sigma level.