A boolean difference works well.  For aerial; 

The included pic is an example of a basic Explosion used in several of my combat images. The debris field is a sphere of leaves, with a glow shader applied. The denser inner explosion is the same with more glow. There is a point light inside to add more color, and the outer smoke is a cloud sphere. Applying more smoke, point lights inside, and several spot lights outside you can create some pretty interesting effects.

Downside; since the debris field is very complex and uses a glow shader, this one explosion can double your render times, because of anti-aliasing.

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