| In point of fact, EMP is real. A high altitude nuclear
blast is the most damaging to electronic devices, as well as, communications.
The faster the derivative (di-dt) of the pulse, the more energetic the
resultant induced field.
The failure mechanism that makes EMP so devastating, lies
with semiconductors and their vulnerability to excessive voltages and reverse
polarities of those voltages. Both will create excessive currents which
will permanently destroy such devices. With the proliferation of the personal
computer and the effort to make them energy efficient, the problem has
become greatly exacerbated. Most of today's semiconductors can be destroyed
by merely touching them, just the static electricity that normally accumulates
on a person's body is enough to do the job.
There are two mechanisms that can destroy any semiconductor:
1) Reverse voltages, e.g., for a device that uses a positive
supply, if a negative voltage is applied, the junction is easily ruptured,
thus causing instant failure. This mechanism requires significantly less
energy to cause damage.
2) Excessive voltages, i.e., voltages that exceed ratings
for the devices.
These two mechanisms then cause excessive currents, melting
the device junctions. It is fair to say that both mechanisms are at work
in an EMP environment.
Collectors of EM Energy from EMP
Power lines
Telephone lines
Pipelines, oil and gas
Rail and subway tracks
| Some EMP Effects |
Civilian
Infrastructure
Urban services will be severely crippled.
Health services will fail.
Jails and Prisons will be thrown open. |
Military
Infrastructure Damage
Command, Control, Communications (C3)
Weapons Systems
Logistics
Supply |
Electricity Grid
Power lines will collect EM Energy, wrecking generation,
substations, distribution; anything tied to the power grid, including highrise
buildings and individual homes, all will suffer catastrophic failures--including
the power lines that collected the EM Energy.
Communications
Telephone and CATV cables will be fused, with repeaters
and central offices rendered unusable. Cell phones: towers and handheld
units will be damaged beyond repair.
Information
Computers, main frame and personal, will be damaged beyond
repair, and Data loss will be massive and permanent.
Transportation
All transportation will cease, cars, trucks, buses, will
stop dead, planes will fall from the sky, subways, trains, will be damaged
and cease to run.
Energy
Oil and gas pipelines will collect massive amounts of
EM Energy, causing catastrophic failures in pumping stations and distribution;
as well as refineries and storage will be destroyed.
Utilities
Water mains will collect EM Energy, causing water filtration
plants to cease to function, triggering a water crises. Sewers and power
lines will collect EM Energy, damaging Waste Treatment Plants, stopping
their operation.
Satellites
A less known effect of high altitude bursts, is the artificial
"pumping" of the Van Allen belt with large numbers of electrons, which
will remain trapped in these belts for periods exceeding one year. All
unhardened satellites traversing these belts in low earth orbit could fail
in a matter of days to weeks.
--------------------------
EMP
Aftermath
Food Distribution,
will be local--and finite, will result in mass starvation.
Electricity, and
heating fuels, finite to nonexistent.
Clean Water, a thing
of the past.
Health Services,
will be setback 50 years.
Industry, will be
brought to a standstill.
Communications, will
be near nonexistent.
Transportation, finite
fuel and most vehicles will need repair.
Monetary System,
dollar will quickly become worthless; foreign markets closed to us.
Law Enforcement,
will be handicapped, officers will be busy taking care of their families.
Anarchy: Civil unrest,
riots, strikes, lawlessness, corruption, chaos, disorder, petty crime,
police corruption, looting, robbery, strong arm robbery, arson, rape, murder,
and vigilantism.
| Casualties, secondary: Starvation
will be the real killer. Food relies almost solely on automation, large-scale,
industrialized, vertically integrated food production. From the fields
to the table, the one common denominator is automation technology. From
the microelectronics in the tractor pulling harrows in the field,
to the trucks carrying produce to the processors, and the automated inventory
tracking in the food store, the vulnerable links in the chain, are the
humble silicon based transistors.
Aircraft will fall from the
sky. At any given time, there are an estimated 90,000 people in the air
over the U.S. It is believed that most of those would become casualties.
This does not take into account the collateral casualties on the ground.
There are millions upon millions
of people driving automobiles at any given time. EMP will suddenly
and totally disable most vehicles, especially modern vehicles that every
function is under electronic control. The number of casualties that would
occur would be in the millions--a number impossible to comprehend, let
alone take care of.
|
NOTE: Due to the extremely high voltages and currents involved, even
if devices are switched off or unplugged, they will still suffer severe
damage.
|
| The view From Kwajalein
It was about 21:00 Kwajalein time, and I was just leaving
an outdoor movie. All of a sudden there was a flash--like someone had just
taken a picture. I looked around, but there were no cameras. Than I heard
several people say that the "Johnston Shot" was scheduled for tonight.
I looked up in the eastern sky-- toward Johnston, Island,
about 1500 miles away--and there, high in the sky, was the beginning of
a thin Arc of very bright white light. It
appeared in the shape of a rainbow, except it didn't span from horizon
to horizon.
The impression was that the light was somehow being shaped
by the Earth's curvature, i.e., reflecting off the ocean's surface.
After about ten to fifteen minutes it reached its brightest,
and its thinnest crescent.
During this time I walked to the, nearby, Navy Ham Shack,
KX6BU,
where a buddy, Bill Campbell, W5UHF, had been running phone patches back
to the states. He said that while he was talking to a "regular on twenty"
[meters], all of a sudden there was a flash, and the band instantly went
DEAD! "No signals and no noise." "It was as if the receiver had been switched
OFF!"
By the time I arrived (~20 to 30 minutes), the "band"
was starting to return. Except, instead of rapid fading (QSB), there was
rapid "worbling," a definite aural frequency shifting. It was as if someone
were wiggling the tuning knob (PTO) of the
Collins 32 S-1 SSB receiver. I have never before, nor since, heard
such a sound. I concluded that it had to be Doppler shifting of the ~ 14.300
MHz signals, caused by the thermonuclear (1.4 Megaton) Induced
Ionospheric
Turbulence...
|
