EMP and its Present & Future Criteria

Abstract
EMP The letters spell burnt out computers , handhelds, robots also other electrical
systems and perhaps even a return to the dark ages if it were to mark the beginning of a
war. Suddenly phones, computers, traffic lights and even our microprocessor laden
vehicles will not work, and that is not all... It is now "you bet your society time." Can we
handle it? Can the rest of the world? It seems relevant to point out that the Internet began
as a means to maintain military communication in a nuclear war. Just how "hardened" are
we?

But it doesn't need to be that way. Once one understands EMP, one can take a few simple
precautions to protect yourself and equipment from it. In fact, you can enjoy much of the
"high tech" life style you've come accustomed to even after the use of an EMP device has
been used by terrorists--or there is an all-out WWIII .

EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse), also sometimes known as "NEMP" (Nuclear

Electromagnetic Pulse), was kept secret from the public for a long time and was first
discovered more or less by accident when US Military tests of nuclear weapons started
knocking out phone banks and other equipment miles from ground zero.

In this paper , we would life to discuss Basically & Briefly , what is an EMP , how is it
caused, created & last but not least How to shield us from its effects .
1.Introduction
Anyone who's been through a prolonged power outage knows that it's an extremely trying
experience. Within an hour of losing electricity,
you develop a healthy appreciation of all the
electrical devices you rely on in life. A couple
hours later, you start pacing around your house.
After a few days without lights, electric heat or
TV, your stress level shoots through the roof.

But in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing.

If an outage hits an entire city, and there aren't
adequate emergency resources, people may die
from exposure, companies may suffer huge
productivity losses and millions of dollars of
food may spoil. If a power outage hit on a much
larger scale, it could shut down the electronic
networks that keep governments and militaries
running. We are utterly dependent on power, and when it's gone, things get very bad,
very fast.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) has the following meanings:

1. The electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially nuclear explosions)

or an intensely fluctuating magnetic field caused by Compton-recoil electrons and
photoelectrons from photons scattered in the materials of the electronic or
explosive device or in a surrounding medium. The resulting electric and magnetic
fields may couple with electrical/electronic systems to produce damaging current
and voltage surges. See Electromagnetic bomb for details on the damages
resulting to electronic devices. The effects are usually not noticeable beyond the
blast radius unless the device is nuclear or specifically designed to produce an
electromagnetic shockwave.
2. A broadband, high-intensity, short-duration burst of electromagnetic energy.

An electromagnetic bomb, or e-bomb, is a weapon designed to take advantage of this

dependency. But instead of simply cutting off power in an area, an e-bomb would
actually destroy most machines that use electricity. Generators would be useless, cars
wouldn't run, and there would be no chance of making a phone call. In a matter of
seconds, a big enough e-bomb could thrust an entire city back 200 years or cripple a
military unit.
The worst of the pulse lasts for only a second, but any unprotected electrical equipment
— and anything connected to electrical cables, which act as giant lightning rods or
antennas — will be affected by the pulse. Older, vacuum tube (valve) based equipment is
much less vulnerable to EMP; Soviet cold war era military aircraft often had avionics
based on vacuum tubes. There are a number of websites that explore methods for
protecting equipment in the home or business from the effects of an EMP attack.

It is important to note that many nuclear detonations have taken place using bombs
dropped by aircraft. The aircraft that delivered the atomic weapons at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki did not fall out of the sky due to damage to their electrical or electronic
systems. This is simply because electrons (ejected from the air by gamma rays) are
stopped quickly in normal (dense) air for bursts below 10 km, so they don't get a chance
to be significantly deflected by the Earth's magnetic field (the deflection causes the
powerful EMP seen in high altitude bursts), but it does point out the limited use of
smaller burst altitudes for widespread EMP.

1.1 Discovery
This idea dates back to nuclear weapons research from the 1950s. In 1958, American
tests of hydrogen bombs yielded some surprising results. A test blast over the Pacific
Ocean ended up blowing out streetlights in parts of Hawaii, hundreds of miles away. The

blast even disrupted radio equipment as far away as Australia.

Researchers concluded that the electrical disturbance was due to the Compton Effect,
theorized by physicist Arthur Compton in 1925. Compton's assertion was that photons of
electromagnetic energy could knock loose electrons from atoms with low atomic
numbers. In the 1958 test, researchers concluded, the photons from the blast's intense
gamma radiation knocked a large number of electrons free from oxygen and nitrogen
atoms in the atmosphere. This flood of electrons interacted with the Earth's magnetic
field to create a fluctuating electric current, which induced a powerful magnetic field. he
resulting electromagnetic pulse induced intense electrical currents in conductive materials
over a wide area.

In the case of a nuclear detonation or a meteor impact[1], the electromagnetic pulse

consists of a continuous frequency spectrum. Most of the energy is distributed throughout
the lower frequencies between 3 Hz and 30 kHz.

2.1 The Nuclear EMP Threat

A high-altitude nuclear detonation produces an immediate flux of gamma rays from the
nuclear reactions within the device. These photons in turn produce high energy free
electrons by Compton scattering at altitudes between (roughly) 20 and 40 km. These
electrons are then trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field, giving rise to an oscillating
electric current. This current is asymmetric in general and gives rise to a rapidly rising
radiated electromagnetic field called an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Because the
electrons are trapped essentially simultaneously, a very large electromagnetic source
radiates coherently.

The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on
land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear
test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A
large device detonated at 400–500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The
signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.

The EMP produced by the Compton electrons typically lasts for about 1 microsecond,
and this signal is called HEMP. In addition to the prompt EMP, scattered gammas and
inelastic gammas produced by weapon neutrons produce an “intermediate time” signal
from about 1 microsecond to 1 second. The energetic debris entering the ionosphere
produces ionization and heating of the E-region. In turn, this causes the geomagnetic field
to “heave,” producing a “late-time” magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) EMP generally
called a heave signal.

2.2 Non-nuclear EMP Weapons

Most likely, the United States' HPM e-

bombs aren't really bombs at all. They're
probably more like super powerful
microwave ovens that can generate a concentrated beam of microwave energy. One
possibility is the HPM device would be mounted to a cruise missile, disrupting ground
targets from above.

This technology is advanced and expensive and so would be inaccessible to military

forces without considerable resources. But that's only one piece of the e-bomb story.
Using inexpensive supplies and rudimentary engineering knowledge, a terrorist
organization could easily construct a dangerous e-bomb device.

In late September 2001, Popular Mechanics published an article outlining this possibility.
The article focused on flux compression generator bombs (FCGs), which date back to
the 1950s. This sort of e-bomb has a fairly simple, potentially inexpensive design,
illustrated below. (This conceptual bomb design comes from this report written by Carlo
Kopp, a defense analyst. The design concept has been widely available to the public for
some time. Nobody would be able to construct a functioning e-bomb from this
description alone).

The bomb consists of a metal cylinder (called the armature), which is surrounded by a
coil of wire (the stator winding). The armature cylinder is filled with high explosive, and
a sturdy jacket surrounds the entire device. The stator winding and the armature cylinder
are separated by empty space. The bomb also has a power source, such as a bank of
capacitors, which can be connected to the stator.

Here's the sequence of events when the bomb goes off:

• A switch connects the capacitors to the stator, sending an electrical current

through the wires. This generates an intense magnetic field.
• A fuze mechanism ignites the explosive material. The explosion travels as a wave
through the middle of the armature cylinder.
• As the explosion makes its way through the cylinder, the cylinder comes in
contact with the stator winding. This creates a short circuit, cutting the stator off
from its power supply.
• The moving short circuit compresses the magnetic field, generating an intense
electromagnetic burst.
Most likely, this type of weapon would affect a relatively small area -- nothing on the
order of a nuclear EMP attack -- but it could do some serious damage.

3.1 EMP Effects

The United States is drawn to EMP technology because it is potentially non-lethal, but is
still highly destructive. An E-bomb attack would leave buildings standing and spare lives,
but it could destroy a sizeable military.

There is a range of possible attack scenarios. Low-level electromagnetic pulses would

temporarily jam electronics systems, more intense pulses would corrupt important
computer data and very powerful bursts would completely fry electric and electronic
equipment.

In modern warfare, the various levels of attack could accomplish a number of important
combat missions without racking up many casualties. For example, an e-bomb could
effectively neutralize:

• vehicle control systems

• targeting systems, on the ground and on missiles and bombs
 • communications systems
• navigation systems
• long & short range sensor systems

A widespread EMP attack in any country would compromise a military's ability to

organize itself. Ground troops might have perfectly functioning non-electric weapons
(like machine guns), but they wouldn't have the equipment to plan an attack or locate the
enemy. Effectively, an EMP attack could reduce any military unit into a guerilla-type
army.

While EMP weapons are generally considered non-lethal, they could easily kill people if
they were directed towards particular targets. If an EMP knocked out a hospital's
electricity, for example, any patient on life support would die immediately. An EMP
weapon could also neutralize vehicles, including aircraft, causing catastrophic accidents.

In the end, the most far-reaching effect of an e-bomb could be psychological. A full-scale
EMP attack in a developed country would instantly bring modern life to a screeching
halt. There would be plenty of survivors, but they would find themselves in a very
different world.

4.1 Defense against E-bombs

The most effective defense against electro-magnetic bombs is to prevent their delivery by
destroying the launch platform or delivery vehicle, as is the case with nuclear weapons.
This however may not always be possible, and therefore systems which can be expected
to suffer exposure to the electro-magnetic weapons effects must be electro-magnetically
hardened.

The most effective method is to wholly contain the equipment in an electrically

conductive enclosure, termed a Faraday cage, which prevents the electro-magnetic field
from gaining access to the protected equipment. However, most such equipment must
communicate with and be fed with power from the outside world, and this can provide
entry points via which electrical transients may enter the enclosure and effect damage.
While optical fibers address this requirement for transferring data in and out, electrical
power feeds remain an ongoing vulnerability.
Where an electrically conductive channel must enter the enclosure, electro-magnetic
arresting devices must be fitted. A range of devices exist, however care must be taken in
determining their parameters to ensure that they can deal with the rise time and strength
of electrical transients produced by electro-magnetic devices. Reports from the US
indicate that hardening measures attuned to the behavior of nuclear EMP bombs do not
perform well when dealing with some conventional microwave electro-magnetic device
designs.
It is significant that hardening of systems must be carried out at a system level, as electro-
magnetic damage to any single element of a complex system could inhibit the function of
the whole system. Hardening new build equipment and systems will add a substantial
cost burden. Older equipment and systems may be impossible to harden properly and
may require complete replacement. In simple terms, hardening by design is significantly
easier than attempting to harden existing equipment.
Intermittent faults may not be possible to repair economically, thereby causing equipment
in this state to be removed from service permanently, with considerable loss in
maintenance hours during damage diagnosis. This factor must also be considered when
assessing the hardness of equipment against electro-magnetic attack, as partial or
incomplete hardening may in this fashion cause more difficulties than it would solve.
Indeed, shielding which is incomplete may resonate when excited by radiation and thus
contribute to damage inflicted upon the equipment contained within it.
Other than hardening against attack, facilities which are concealed should not radiate
readily detectable emissions. Where radio frequency communications must be used, low
probability of intercept (i.e.. spread spectrum) techniques should be employed
exclusively to preclude the use of site emissions for electro-magnetic targeting purposes.
Appropriate suppression of UE is also mandatory.

Building Faraday Cages :

The copper mesh, like 1 inch chicken wire, worked well in large uses, like covering
buildings, and it is still in use today: FEMA headquarters buildings are dome-shaped
earth-bermed structures, and under the earth is a copper mesh that extends out from the
base and is secured by grounding rods.

As an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) travels to earth, whether from a Coronal Mass
Ejection (CME) or a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere, it hits and runs along
electrical power lines as well, building up voltage and amperage, which is what happened
during the last solar storm a dozen years ago, blowing out transformers and leaving 6
million people in eastern Canada without power for weeks.

To prevent that problem, if you have a hard-wired generator, the wiring from the
generator to the house should run in conduit that is grounded. The generator itself can
have the frame grounded for added insurance, but that ground wire MUST be insulated
and run to a different ground rod well away from the ground rod for building and
conduit!

With radio's and smaller appliances, a Faraday cage can be built by using two cardboard
boxes: one should fit tightly inside the other, and the item to be covered should itself fit
reasonably well inside the smaller box. That is about the most work involved--finding the
right size boxes! The outer box is then covered with aluminum foil or Mylar, as from a
cheap "space blanket." A grounding wire is then taped to the foil. I then cover the foil
with black 6 mil plastic, taped securely in place, to protect the foil from ripping. At the
end of the ground wire I attach a cheap small alligator clip from Radio Shack. The item to
be protected is placed inside the inner box, which acts as insulation from the outer box,
and any EMP hitting the foil and is bled away by the ground wire.

Some medium sized electrical equipment can also easily fit into boxes covered with foil
for EMP protection. My laptop computer, for example, fits easily into a Faraday box
made from a box that held reams of paper: the entire lid is removable, allowing easy
access to the laptop in its case, but is safely stored when not in use.

For larger items which cannot be boxed, such as living room TV sets, etc, I tape a Mylar
space blanket to a piece of 6 mil black plastic sheet, using double-sticky tape every foot
or so to make sure the Mylar stays in place (it is slippery). I leave a 2 inch edge of black
plastic showing all around the space blanket, and while taping down the edges I put on a
short lead of ground wire. When it appears that EMP or CME's are on the way, the
blanket can be draped over the appliance, the alligator clip attached to a small,
unobtrusive ground wire behind the cabinet, and any electromagnetic radiation will be
diverted to the ground wire. Very cheap, simple, and once done, items can be "draped"
for protection very quickly indeed. And the plastic blankets fold up neatly for storage,
ready for use when needed.

Need Alternate Communications

•All communications impacted

–Phone
–Cable
–Television
–Radio
•Need alternate off-grid system
–Independent of wireline
–Independent power
–A lot like amateur radio

Some steps :
Creating joint venture, Instant Access Networks
–Recruiting companies
–Creating patented technology
Helping create public safety policy
Helping develop COOP standards
Supporting amateur radio

Intermittent faults may not be possible to repair economically, thereby causing equipment
in this state to be removed from service permanently, with considerable loss in
maintenance hours during damage diagnosis. This factor must also be considered when
assessing the hardness of equipment against electro-magnetic attack, as partial or
incomplete hardening may in this fashion cause more difficulties than it would solve.
Indeed, shielding which is incomplete may resonate when excited by radiation and thus
contribute to damage inflicted upon the equipment contained within it.
Other than hardening against attack, facilities which are concealed should not radiate
readily detectable emissions. Where radio frequency communications must be used, low
probability of intercept (i.e.. spread spectrum) techniques should be employed
exclusively to preclude the use of site emissions for electro-magnetic targeting purposes.
Appropriate suppression of UE is also mandatory.

Conclusion
Even though an EMP is an dangerous weapon against post – industrialized urban areas , it
can be easily minimized or neutralized with proper precautions

The key is to use a metal enclosure and eliminate or minimize any openings. Where
openings are needed they should be surrounded to the greatest extent possible by
continuous metal and in the case of a gasket, metal sheathing or mesh can be placed
around the elastometer material or conductive metal moulded into the gasket. The closer
the surrounding container comes to a continuous metal skin the more protection that will
be provided.

High quality gaskets, utilizing either a mesh or embedded conductive metal design, are
very expensive. They add a magnitude of cost to a normal gasket and can easily double
the price of a container similar to the ones mentioned above.
References

1) Paul Nielsen, http://www.cecer.army.mil

2) U.S. Defence Research
3) Popular Mechanics
4) Wikepidia
5) science.howstuffworks.com
6) www.aussurvivalist.com
7) www.unitedstatesaction.com
8) www.shoutwire.com