Wrong about EMP affects?

[cosermann]

I have heard that the sun could cause a natural EMP that would have global effect. Has anyone heard of this? It apparently has happened in the past, there was just nothing to get damaged back then.

See post #38, not really "EMP," but . . .

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Let's not overlook the shifting of the poles and the earths own magnetosphere.....quite possibly the planets own method of detox....

 

[cosermann]

 

[rhino]

See post #38, not really "EMP," but . . .

Well, it is a source of a steady flow of e-m waves. Biga** fusion reactors do that kind of thing. Personally, I enjoy visible light, radiant heat, and a few pieces of the spectrum on a daily basis!

 

[wolfts01]

This question, and the many misconceptions about EMPs in the prepper community, has prompted me to use my Google-fu to learn more about EMP and its effects. I know this seems long, but I tried to keep it short and to the point.

The Wikipedia article on EMPs is very informative, and most of this info is from the Wiki article. From what I gather there are three kinds of "EMP": nuclear, geomagnetic, and non-nuclear EMP devices.

Nuclear
Nuclear devices have 3 forms/stages of EMP activity, called E1, E2, and E3.

E1 - The fastest and most damaging
Nuclear devices make use of the fact that they produce gamma radiation (high energy light waves, with frequencies in the ExaHertz range, or >10^19 Hz!!). This gamma radiation is powerful enough to knock electrons loose from their atoms when they come in contact with the upper atmosphere. These negatively charged electrons move in a net downward direction at more than 90% of the speed of light. Earth's magnetic field imparts a Lorentz force on the electrons and causes them to rotate around the magnetic field lines. The sudden massive current of these electrons interacts with the Earth's magnetic field and radiates an intense EM wave.

The EM spike peaks quickly at 5 nanoseconds, and the strength can reach tens of kilovolts per meter, with some theoretical limit at 50,000 kV/m. The E1 pulse is so fast that protective circuitry (like for lightning strikes) can't stop it, and the intensity is high enough to exceed the electrical breakdown voltages in solid-state electronic equipment. This is the pulse that will kill your embedded electronics (no more car), computers, and communication devices.

E2 - Secondary Pulse
This pulse is also generated by gamma radiation, but it is much slower and is comparable to a weak lightning strike, so most protective circuitry would block it. The problem is that the E2 pulse follows the E1 pulse, and the E1 pulse destroyed all of this protective circuitry.

E3 - "Restoring" Pulse
The nuclear detonation has now "pushed" the Earth's magnetic field out of its way via the E1 and E2 pulses. The E3 pulse is caused by the Earth's magnetic field returning to its previous "resting" state. This EMP lasts up to hundreds of seconds, and is very similar to the geomagnetic EMP that can be caused by the sun. As the field changes back to its initial state it induces a current in any conductor due to Faraday's law. This has its strongest affect on really big circuits like the power grid and communications systems. One supply that people don't think of is natural gas, but that is also a large conducting network...



Geomagnetic

This is caused when the sun shoots charged particles at the earth and causes a similar movement of Earth's magnetic field as happens with nukes in the E3 stage. The changing magnetic fields produce electric fields in the ground and this causes ground currents and currents in other conductors. Again, it has a larger affect on larger circuits, as was shown in the telegraph system during the 1859 super flare.

While this would be bad for infrastructure, it wouldn't be too bad for any unconnected or isolated electronics that don't have very long conductors.

Non-Nuclear
These are the electrical devices that try to mimic the EMP of a nuclear weapon, but their range is very limited in comparison to the nuclear and geomagnetic sources.



Conclusion
The nuclear EMP is definitely the most devastating to our technology because it can affect all solid-state electronics with the E1 pulse, as well as the larger conducting infrastructure with the E2 and E3 pulses. Only one or two nukes can incapacitate the entire country. This would truly be a one-two punch to our modern way of life that would take a long time to recover from.

The geomagnetic is second, but it is also far more likely to happen (practically certain, statistically) because it has already happened. Even though it won't affect your individual devices much, you still won't be able to power most of these devices with the electrical grid down. Even your car would eventually run out of gas that you would be unable to pump any more of because you have no power for the pump itself (as someone else mentioned earlier).

The non-nuclear EMP weapons are pretty much only strategic weapons of warfare. Worrying about this is like worrying about someone using a tomahawk missile to blow up your house.



Answer to the question
These people are most certainly not wrong about EMP effects, but they may be worrying about the strictly nuclear effects when considering the other scenarios. I am unsure of the effectiveness of the various Faraday cages that are touted as complete protection from the effects, though. I'm sure the Gov't has plenty of knowledge on EMP hardening sensitive electronics to answer that question.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Seriously folks, I keep an old microwave oven on the workbench in my garage to use as a faraday cage and recommend the same. It doesn't hurt anything to have one there and the potential it has to protect things like radios (am, fm, shortwave, walkie-talkies, etc...) is priceless.

 

[churchmouse]

Seriously folks, I keep an old microwave oven on the workbench in my garage to use as a faraday cage and recommend the same. It doesn't hurt anything to have one there and the potential it has to protect things like radios (am, fm, shortwave, walkie-talkies, etc...) is priceless.

Also being able to heat up the coffee or just pop some corn is cool as well..