What you will learn:
- What is an EMP?
- Impact and outcome of an EMP.
- How to prepare for, and protect, electrical and electronic systems.
An electromagnetic pulse is a massive, highly intensive, short-duration pulse of combined electric and magnetic fields. Because of its fast rise time and short life, its Fourier content covers the whole frequency spectrum from dc to light. And its intensity can range from kilovolts to megavolts, potentially destroying almost any electrical or electronic thing. Are your products and systems protected from such a catastrophic event? If not, you should give it some thought.
An EMP can be caused by natural events like lightning, or a solar flare also known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun. However, a manufactured device used as a weapon also could generate such a blast. A nuclear explosion produces an enormous EMP depending on the megatons of nuclear material detonated. Other non-nuclear EMP weapons have been developed, too.
When a mass EMP occurs, it has the potential to take out everything from the electrical grid to your smartphone and all in between. The enormous fields induce large voltages in anything, causing large currents to flow that destroy components and equipment. Any item with wiring that can act as an antenna will get a massive dose of these fields and destroy it—and that includes large things like all or part of our electrical grid.
You know what it’s like to be deprived of energy during a power failure, but most of us can survive with no electricity for a few hours or even days. But what if the power doesn’t come back? One study on the subject estimates that if the grid were down for a year, as many as 90% of the U.S. population would perish during a period of food shortages, disease, and social unrest.
Courses of Action
Governments have been studying EMP and what to do about it. Rogue countries like North Korea and Iran have the capability of setting off a nuclear EMP. Its size would determine the amount of area affected by the blast. Electrical and magnetic fields decrease in intensity with distance, so in most events, not everything would be destroyed. But in the blast zone, the electric grid and every automobile, TV set, radio, phone, appliance, and other electronic gadget would be toast.
What can be done to mitigate the impact of such a disastrous event? As it turns out, the techniques that work well to reduce any EMI—grounding, shielding, and filtering—are the solutions. Filtering, of course, is of little value, but shielding and grounding work well. Covering a product with a total Faraday shield that’s well-grounded will help most devices survive an EMP.
The military already has some solutions (MIL-STD-188-125-1), and many are available for commercial applications. You may want to explore what’s possible for you, personally and work-related. Learn more about EMP and its effects (and you thought you would never use those Maxwell’s equations you had to learn in college). What I found useful were the EMP Shield product and the Common Sense Home article on EMPs and being prepared.
The consensus is that the odds of an EMP attack occurring are extremely low. But we have enemies that could surprise us—it would unfortunately be the best way to bring down the country. COVID did not destroy us, but it did hurt us. An EMP country-wide event could very well end the USA.