Nuclear winter

Nuclear winter is a hypothesized global cooling following large-scale nuclear war, when smoke from burning cities and industrial areas blocks sunlight and disrupts climate.

Nuclear firestorm: A mass fire generated by a nuclear explosion, in which intense heat can merge separate fires into a powerful firestorm. Firestorms over cities could loft soot high enough to persist and block sunlight.
Nuclear arms race: The competition among states to build and expand nuclear arsenals, especially during the Cold War. Concern about the consequences of large arsenals created the context for studying global effects.
Global cooling: A sustained decrease in Earth's average surface temperature across broad regions or the planet. Nuclear winter is a proposed cause of unusually abrupt global cooling.
Nuclear autumn: A proposed climate response to nuclear war involving less severe cooling than the most extreme nuclear-winter scenarios. The term distinguishes intermediate cooling projections from catastrophic winter scenarios.
Black carbon: A strongly light-absorbing form of carbon produced by incomplete combustion of fuels and biomass. Soot from burning urban materials absorbs sunlight and heats the upper atmosphere.
Paul Crutzen: A Dutch atmospheric chemist whose research on ozone and climate earned him the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His 1982 paper helped frame smoke-driven global cooling as a serious nuclear-war consequence.
Growing season: The part of the year when local temperatures and conditions allow plants to grow. Cooling and reduced sunlight could shorten growing seasons and lower harvests.
Volcanic winter: Temporary global cooling caused by volcanic aerosols that reduce incoming sunlight. Both involve sunlight reduction, but volcanic aerosols and nuclear-fire soot differ in origin and properties.
Stratosphere: The atmospheric layer above the troposphere, extending from roughly 10 to 50 kilometers above Earth. Smoke reaching this layer can remain aloft far longer than smoke near the ground.
John Birks: An American atmospheric chemist who studied the environmental consequences of nuclear war with Paul Crutzen. Their joint 1982 analysis connected urban fires and smoke with severe atmospheric effects.

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