Electromagnetic pulse EMP is an electromagnetic wave similar to radio waves, which results from secondary reactions occurring when the nuclear gamma radiation is absorbed in the air or ground. It differs from the usual radio waves in two important ways. First, it creates much higher electric field strengths. Whereas a radio signal might produce a thousandth of a volt or less in a receiving antenna, an EMP pulse might produce thousands of volts.
A bad actor with a nuclear bomb can cause incredible damage and loss of life, but ultimately, the vast majority of people would be unaffected by any single explosion. The blast radius for such an EMP is not just a few miles like it is for a nuclear explosion. Instead, a nuclear bomb detonated in the atmosphere can cause an EMP that covers thousands of square miles of territory.
A manmade nuclear EMP could utterly destroy electrical systems across a whole country, or across several. Whether natural or manmade, a strong enough EMP could take society back to the s in terms of technology. So how do EMPs work? The massive energy from an EMP forces itself into electrical wiring. Suddenly, our wires are transferring extreme amounts of energy.
When that powerful energy reaches a transformer, it can overload it and destroy it. While the wires are intact, the system cannot function without the transformer, so the device shuts down. The thing about how an EMP works is, you might suppose that such a strong phenomenon would be almost impossible to stop. Even just wrapping an electrical system in 5 layers of heavy-duty tin foil is enough to foil a powerful EMP strike! Some government and military technology are protected with this kind of shielding, but most of the electrical grid is not.
Surviving a power outage of a few weeks is a matter of having some extra food and water in the home. Surviving a never-ending power outage is a matter of learning to farm, live off the land, or travel to an unaffected area. Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider.
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These charge-carrying electrons would be corralled by Earth's magnetic field , and as they zipped around, they would generate a powerful, fluctuating electric current, which, in turn, would generate a massive EMP. The explosion could also distort Earth's magnetic field, causing a slower pulse similar to a naturally occuring EMP.
Setting off a nuclear weapon about miles kilometers above the U. The explosion and radiation from the bomb would dissipate before reaching ground level, but the resulting EMP would be powerful enough to destroy electronics across the region, Pry said. A small EMP with a radius of under a kilometer can also be generated by combining high-voltage power sources with antennas that release this energy as electromagnetic waves.
The U. The technology required to protect against EMPs is similar to what is already used to prevent damage from power surges caused by lightning, Pry said. These technologies would have to be adapted to deal with higher voltages, but devices such as surge protectors, which divert excess voltage into the Earth, or Faraday cages, which shield devices from electromagnetic radiation, could do the job.
The threat posed by EMPs is far from settled, though.
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