The Conservative Cave

Interests => The Science Club => Topic started by: AARguy on January 16, 2022, 09:53:04 PM

Title: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 16, 2022, 09:53:04 PM
In these dangerous times could you survive the aftereffects of an EMP attack? Are you prepared for EMP? Do you have a plan?
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: franksolich on January 16, 2022, 10:18:16 PM
Quote
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy.

Depending upon the source, the origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic field, as an electric field, as a magnetic field, or as a conducted electric current.

The electromagnetic interference caused by an EMP disrupts communications and damages electronic equipment; at higher levels of energy, an EMP, such as a lightning strike can physically damage objects such as buildings and aircraft.

EMP weapons are designed to deliver the damaging effects of a high-energy EMP that will disrupt unprotected infrastructure in the country, thus the employment of an EMP weapon against a country is the scenario of war most likely to collapse the functionality of the electrical network of the country.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 16, 2022, 10:26:07 PM
Yup... that's it. Our own EMP weapons like Boeing's "CHAMP" can be devastating. You can bet the bad guys have similar stuff. Military systems remain very vulnerable but civilian systems are even MORE vulnerable. Are folks trying to prepare?
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Eupher on January 17, 2022, 02:19:30 PM
Yup... that's it. Our own EMP weapons like Boeing's "CHAMP" can be devastating. You can bet the bad guys have similar stuff. Military systems remain very vulnerable but civilian systems are even MORE vulnerable. Are folks trying to prepare?

What do you suggest? How does one prepare for or against an EMP attack?
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 04:46:32 PM
Well, I admit to being something of a "prepper". I started by buying an old car to restore... a car with points and plugs,not a computer and fuel injection. Its a fun hobby and if just happens to be an EMP attack someday,I'll have a car that works.

And I have made two "Faraday Cages" to safeguard an old, unused laptop I have, a digital camera, a spare blood sugar monitor, some radios and such.

Its not much. But its a start.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 17, 2022, 06:38:49 PM
May want to add, alternator, regulator, and starter, to that cage. Oh coil and condenser too.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 06:43:20 PM
EMP will only effect microcircuits... printed circuits like you find in a computer motherboard, things with tiny wires. I dont believe any of those car parts would be susceptible to EMP.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Eupher on January 17, 2022, 06:49:28 PM
Well, I admit to being something of a "prepper". I started by buying an old car to restore... a car with points and plugs,not a computer and fuel injection. Its a fun hobby and if just happens to be an EMP attack someday,I'll have a car that works.

And I have made two "Faraday Cages" to safeguard an old, unused laptop I have, a digital camera, a spare blood sugar monitor, some radios and such.

Its not much. But its a start.

Good points - no pun intended. I remember working on my older cars. The last one was a '78 Nova that I bought new. Since then, electronic this 'n that. Ugh.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: dutch508 on January 17, 2022, 06:56:08 PM
EMP will only effect microcircuits... printed circuits like you find in a computer motherboard, things with tiny wires. I dont believe any of those car parts would be susceptible to EMP.

Anything with a chip, which is most stuff anymore.
Like you said, pre 78 or so is your best bet
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 07:28:44 PM
Yes... by the way, there's a great novel on the subject of EMP. Story of its effects on an average American town. Its called "One Second After". Forward by Newt Gingrich. Afterward by a Navy guy that talks tech.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 17, 2022, 08:06:33 PM
No. As the magnetic field collapses it will create electricity. Coils of wire will amplify this, the transformer effect. Bigger magnetic field more electricity. This shorts across the insulation. There were no chips for the Carling event, yet switch boards caught fire.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 08:15:49 PM
That's true. But the inducted current is tiny. That's why it only effects microcircuits. even it is increased by a ratio of, say, 10 to 1 in a transformer/coil situation... it wouldn't be enough to hurt things that weren't micro in nature.
But now you have me thinking about possibilities...
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 17, 2022, 08:53:35 PM
10 to 1, think 1000 to 1. and there was enough current to start a fire.

What do you think is going to ruin the power transformer's.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 08:58:00 PM
May I ask what induced the current in the first place? We're talking EMP, so there had to be an external expanding and collapsing field.May I ask what was generating this field?
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 17, 2022, 09:00:08 PM
EMP, electro Magnetic pulse.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 09:47:26 PM
No, my question is... what is generating the EMP? EMP is an expanding and contracting magnetic field. EMP can be generated by many things. A nuke generates EMP in a single burst, but EMP can also be generated continuously by things like Boeing's "CHAMP" weapon system ... even your microwave oven is an EMP geneartor... that's why you cant put metals in it.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 17, 2022, 10:04:54 PM
I always thought of it being a Carrington event, sun generated, a secondary, but smaller foot print, would be nuclear. You can not confuse RF, radio frequency's, with a magnetic pulse. As you pointed out microwaves ovens radiate rf. But not at a level need extra shielding.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 17, 2022, 11:02:32 PM
I understand. But EMP WEAPONS have been underdevelopment for a long time. The effect of an expanding and contracting magnetic field is to induce current in ferrous materials. In small electronics like microcircuitry, it doesn't take much to physically melt the target, much like the old fashioned fuses in your grandmother's basement "overloaded and melted. Only difference is instead of coming from a wire to that fuse, the current is induced by EMP. It works just like a generator, except that in a generator, metal is moved through a magnetic field. With EMP the metal is stationary and the field is moving... expanding and contracting.

The US started working on CHAMP years ago. By 2012 there was a prototype built by Boeing. Soon after, the program got highly classified and information dried up, although I have seen some reports on it as late as 2015. Originally a missile would carry the EMP generator which was programmable for the size of its "footprint". This footprint was reported to be adjustable from a city block size to a fan 40 kilometers deep with an arc of about 45 degrees. Supposedly, it can now be carried under the wing of an aircraft like a F-16, like any other weapon "pod".

EMP started out as a nuclear detonation byproduct We can now generate EMP in a way tailored to defeat our enemies.

Other nations are developing, or have developed similar weapons. The Israeli version is more of a precision weapon.

China has an EMP weapon too… from October 2021: https://eurasiantimes.com/chinas-new-electromagnetic-missile-can-cripple-us-indian-econom/
Israel has an EMP weapon called “SCORPIUS” (also from 2021): https://nypost.com/2021/11/11/israel-has-new-scorpius-electromagnetic-defense-system/
US EMP weapon “CHAMP”.. old article… American CHAMP got highly classified around 2015 and news articles dried up, but here’s an older one: https://www.inquisitr.com/2122223/air-force-emp-weapon-confirmed-by-u-s-military-and-boeing/

These weapons have application throughout the three dimensional modern battlefield. On the ground it can melt the circuitry of a tank's fre control computer, communications radios, field artillery gunnery computers (as well as electronic projectile fusing), vehicle computers and more. And aircraft? Almost everything would be unable to fly. (its not an accident that you will find a few old UH-1 "Huey" helicopters in the military. They predate modern computers and fly by wire"... EMP wouldn't disable them.)

Rockets are unguided (tink of a kid's "bottle rocket". They go where aimed. EMP weapons, for example, would have no effect on the "Katushka" rockets Hamas routinely fires at Israel. But MISSILES are guided in flight by computers. EMP weapons are the perfect Air defense weapons against the new "hypervelocity" missiles our enemies are fielding. You don't have to be precise like a gun. The EMP "fan generated by things like CHAMP create a large field. If the missile flies through it, its guidance will be disabled. If it were to carry a nuclear weapon, the complex electronics associated with detonating the nuke would be fried too. The perfect counter to hypervelocity missiles.

Air Defenders used to say "If it flies, it dies!". I am already hearing them say "If it flies, it fries!"

If the next war is big enough for an all-out effort, we will see a tremendous change in warfare across the board due to EMP weapons.

Title: Re: EMP
Post by: dutch508 on January 17, 2022, 11:41:27 PM
If it happens, it will come down to basic soldiering. Putting the grunt on the ground with a rifle and cold steel.

Nothing ever changes.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: AARguy on January 18, 2022, 12:01:59 AM
Well... cold steel anyway. After a short time without trucks or vehicles, there might not be any ammo left for the rifle.

If CHAMP isn't used, I totally agree. "Unoccupied enemy territory is still... enemy territory."
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 18, 2022, 09:46:20 AM
I don't see CHAMPS as a TEOTWAWKI type threat. Not on the order of a CME or Nuc. Perhaps I'm wrong and should be. Still the preps made for larger events should work.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 20, 2022, 08:21:48 PM
Have you seen this.

https://astronomy.com/news/2022/01/are-we-ready-for-the-next-big-solar-storm?utm_source=acs&utm_medium=email&utm_email=andre.depre%40scarlet.be&utm_campaign=News0_ASY_220114_000000&eid=andre.depre%40scarlet.be&eid=andre.depre%40scarlet.be

“Flares occur when electromagnetic radiation erupts from the Sun. These bursts often last a few minutes, though they are sometimes longer. They are sometimes associated with coronal mass ejections, which blow out gas material and magnetic fields. But not every solar flare or coronal mass ejection will have an impact on Earth; it depends on both the size of the burst and the direction it’s heading. If a solar flare occurs on the far side of the Sun, for example, it’s unlikely to affect us.

Even if it does happen on the near side, the direction of the burst often misses us — as we’re quite far away and a relatively small target compared to the Sun. This occurred in 2001, for example, when one of the largest solar flares in recorded history exploded into a coronal mass ejection at a speed of about 4.5 million miles per hour. Luckily, it swept by us on its way into space.”

From Survivalblog.com
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Drafe Hoblin on January 20, 2022, 09:36:11 PM
Earth is grazed by flare-debris a couple times in a human-lifetime. 

I think the history of the telegraph includes a hit in the 1880's, which the news that a flare knocked it out was 'reported' via the telegraph a few days later.  The 'system' was relatively unscathed.   
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 21, 2022, 09:20:06 AM
It was a small area in Canada, and I understand there was a fire.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: ExGeeEye on January 21, 2022, 02:23:48 PM
Microwave ovens are Faraday cages.

I have a couple in the shed for backup hard drives etc.
Title: Re: EMP
Post by: Rick on January 30, 2022, 09:13:43 PM
"EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE AND CME: A coronal mass ejection CME is heading for Earth. It was hurled into space during the early hours of Jan. 30th by big sunspot AR2936. The underlying explosion was a long duration M1-class solar flare, which produced an asymmetric halo CME. Watch the movie. The CME will probably arrive on Feb. 1-2. Stay tuned for a more refined forecast. Aurora alerts: SMS Text."

From:
https://spaceweather.com/