EWM is an effective mechanism by which to get a short duration high intensity light source. The peak intensity for copper wire, for example, is 9.6*10<sup>8</sup> candle power/cm<sup>2</sup>.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Conn|first1=William|title=The Use of "Exploding Wires" as a Light Source of Very High Intensity and Short Duration|journal=JOURNALJournal OFof THEthe OPTICALOptical SOCIETYSociety OFof AMERICAAmerica|date=October 28, 1949|volume=41|issue=7|url=http://www.opticsinfobase.org/view_article.cfm?gotourl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eopticsinfobase%2Eorg%2FDirectPDFAccess%2FC2AAEF95-F7D9-36C6-8FD97DC46DA8F1A9_50214%2Fjosa-41-7-445%2Epdf%3Fda%3D1%26id%3D50214%26seq%3D0%26mobile%3Dno&org=University%20of%20California%20Santa%20Barbara%20%28CDL%29|accessdate=30 October 2014}}</ref> J.A. Anderson wrote in his initial spectrography studies that the light was comparable to a black body at 20,000K.<ref name=anderson>{{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=J.A.|title=The Spectral Energy Distribution And Opacity Of Wire Explosion Vapors|journal=Mount Wilson Observatory, Carnegie Institution of Washington|date=May 22, 1922|volume=8|page=1|url=http://www.pnas.org/content/8/7/231.full.pdf|accessdate=2 November 2014}}</ref> The advantage of a flash produced in this way is that it is easily reproducible with little variation in intensity. The linear nature of the wire allows for specifically shaped and angled light flashes and different types of wires can be used to produce different colors of light.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Oster|first1=Gisela K.|last2=Marcus|first2=R. A.|title=Exploding Wire as a Light Source in Flash Photolysis|journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics|date=1957|volume=27|issue=1|pages=189|doi=10.1063/1.1743665|url=http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/27/1/10.1063/1.1743665|accessdate=2 November 2014|bibcode = 1957JChPh..27..189O }}</ref> The light source can be used in [[interferometry]], [[flash photolysis]], quantitative [[spectroscopy]], and [[high-speed photography]].
