Waves of Fate and my EMP research
Hello and welcome to my website.
I'm guessing you are here because you read my Waves of Fate series, or are contemplating it. THANK YOU. This series was so much fun to write. My characters were so real to me, but sadly the effects of an EMP were also very real. If the world is ever stuck by an EMP we will all be affected. The research I did for this series was immense. I knew nothing about an EMP, the consequences of humanity being hit by one, or that an EMP strike is a very real threat. In crafting my books for the Waves of Fate series, I used both fact, to make the EMP effects real, and fiction for my readers enjoyment. Here are some of my research notes |
What is an EMP?
According to Wikipedia:
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also sometimes called a transient electromagnetic disturbance, is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Such a pulse's origin may be a natural occurrence or human-made and can occur as a radiated, electric, or magnetic field or a conducted electric current, depending on the source.
EMP interference is generally disruptive or damaging to electronic equipment, and at higher energy levels a powerful EMP event such as a lightning strike can damage physical objects such as buildings and aircraft structures. The management of EMP effects is an important branch of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering.
Weapons have been developed to deliver the damaging effects of high-energy EMP.
According to Wikipedia:
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also sometimes called a transient electromagnetic disturbance, is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Such a pulse's origin may be a natural occurrence or human-made and can occur as a radiated, electric, or magnetic field or a conducted electric current, depending on the source.
EMP interference is generally disruptive or damaging to electronic equipment, and at higher energy levels a powerful EMP event such as a lightning strike can damage physical objects such as buildings and aircraft structures. The management of EMP effects is an important branch of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering.
Weapons have been developed to deliver the damaging effects of high-energy EMP.
How does an EMP Occur?
According to the Federation of American Scientists:
An energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges; semiconductor components are particularly at risk. The effects of damage can range from imperceptible to the eye, to devices literally blowing apart. Cables, even if short, can act as antennas to transmit pulse energy to equipment.
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.
A large device detonated at 400–500 km (250 to 312 miles) over Kansas would affect all of the continental U.S. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.
Thus, for equipment to be affected, the weapon needs to be above the visual horizon.
The altitude indicated above is greater than that of the International Space Station and many low Earth orbit satellites. Large weapons could have a dramatic impact on satellite operations and communications such as occurred during Operation Fishbowl. The damaging effects on orbiting satellites are usually due to factors other than EMP. In the Starfish Prime nuclear test, most damage was to the satellites' solar panels while passing through radiation belts created by the explosion.
For detonations within the atmosphere, the situation is more complex. Within the range of gamma ray deposition, simple laws no longer hold as the air is ionised and there are other EMP effects, such as a radial electric field due to the separation of Compton electrons from air molecules, together with other complex phenomena. For a surface burst, absorption of gamma rays by air would limit the range of gamma ray deposition to approximately 10 miles, while for a burst in the lower-density air at high altitudes, the range of deposition would be far greater.
According to the Federation of American Scientists:
An energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges; semiconductor components are particularly at risk. The effects of damage can range from imperceptible to the eye, to devices literally blowing apart. Cables, even if short, can act as antennas to transmit pulse energy to equipment.
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.
A large device detonated at 400–500 km (250 to 312 miles) over Kansas would affect all of the continental U.S. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.
Thus, for equipment to be affected, the weapon needs to be above the visual horizon.
The altitude indicated above is greater than that of the International Space Station and many low Earth orbit satellites. Large weapons could have a dramatic impact on satellite operations and communications such as occurred during Operation Fishbowl. The damaging effects on orbiting satellites are usually due to factors other than EMP. In the Starfish Prime nuclear test, most damage was to the satellites' solar panels while passing through radiation belts created by the explosion.
For detonations within the atmosphere, the situation is more complex. Within the range of gamma ray deposition, simple laws no longer hold as the air is ionised and there are other EMP effects, such as a radial electric field due to the separation of Compton electrons from air molecules, together with other complex phenomena. For a surface burst, absorption of gamma rays by air would limit the range of gamma ray deposition to approximately 10 miles, while for a burst in the lower-density air at high altitudes, the range of deposition would be far greater.
What would happen to the USA after and EMP?
Extract from Peter Pry, director of a bipartisan congressional commission called the EMP Task force
The U.S. is an easy target because virtually everything, military and civilian, relies on computers, and even the Pentagon uses the civilian Internet. “Ours is the most technologically advanced society, and therefore the most susceptible to attack
The commission, the military and civilian groups have begun to take attacks on the U.S. electrical and Internet network more seriously, and they have discovered that those would be far more effective against the United States than a bomb.
“Although it is very difficult to predict exactly which electronic systems would be upset, damaged, or destroyed by an EMP attack, with certainty massive disruption and damage will be inflicted on unprotected electronics within the EMP field and, because of cascading failures, far beyond. EMP is analogous to carpet bombing or an artillery barrage that causes massive random damage that is specifically difficult to predict, but reliably catastrophic in its macro-effects,” he said.
Pry, in calling for greater Pentagon and Homeland Security attention to the issue, compared the potential for an attack to Pearl Harbor. He also presented an “EMP World War” scenario where all the countries with EMP warfare plans join in a “New Axis” to attack the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Pry even suggested that a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere above Omaha, Neb., could black out Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. He predicted that an attack would lead to “damage too broad and too deep to repair, requiring years, if the U.S. could survive for years.”
Without making relatively inexpensive fixes to the electric grid and military bases to protect against an EMP attack, Pry said that the end could come fast.
“There is no coming back,” said his report, adding:
Peter Pry, director of a bipartisan congressional commission called the EMP Task force.
The U.S. is an easy target because virtually everything, military and civilian, relies on computers, and even the Pentagon uses the civilian Internet. “Ours is the most technologically advanced society, and therefore the most susceptible to attack
The commission, the military and civilian groups have begun to take attacks on the U.S. electrical and Internet network more seriously, and they have discovered that those would be far more effective against the United States than a bomb.
“Although it is very difficult to predict exactly which electronic systems would be upset, damaged, or destroyed by an EMP attack, with certainty massive disruption and damage will be inflicted on unprotected electronics within the EMP field and, because of cascading failures, far beyond. EMP is analogous to carpet bombing or an artillery barrage that causes massive random damage that is specifically difficult to predict, but reliably catastrophic in its macro-effects,” he said.
Pry, in calling for greater Pentagon and Homeland Security attention to the issue, compared the potential for an attack to Pearl Harbor.
He also presented an “EMP World War” scenario where all the countries with EMP warfare plans join in a “New Axis” to attack the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
Pry even suggested that a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere above Omaha, Neb., could black out Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. He predicted that an attack would lead to “damage too broad and too deep to repair, requiring years, if the U.S. could survive for years.”
Without making relatively inexpensive fixes to the electric grid and military bases to protect against an EMP attack, Pry said that the end could come fast.
“There is no coming back,” said his report, adding:
“Everything is in blackout and nothing works. The EMP sparks widespread fires, explosions, all kinds of industrial accidents. Firestorms rage in cities and forests. Toxic clouds pollute the air and chemical spills poison already polluted lakes and rivers. In seven days, the over 100 nuclear power reactors run out of emergency power and go Fukushima, spreading radioactive plumes over the most populous half of the United States. There is not even any drinking water and the national food supply in regional warehouses begins to spoil in three days. There was only enough food to feed 320 million people for 30 days anyway.
Extract from Peter Pry, director of a bipartisan congressional commission called the EMP Task force
The U.S. is an easy target because virtually everything, military and civilian, relies on computers, and even the Pentagon uses the civilian Internet. “Ours is the most technologically advanced society, and therefore the most susceptible to attack
The commission, the military and civilian groups have begun to take attacks on the U.S. electrical and Internet network more seriously, and they have discovered that those would be far more effective against the United States than a bomb.
“Although it is very difficult to predict exactly which electronic systems would be upset, damaged, or destroyed by an EMP attack, with certainty massive disruption and damage will be inflicted on unprotected electronics within the EMP field and, because of cascading failures, far beyond. EMP is analogous to carpet bombing or an artillery barrage that causes massive random damage that is specifically difficult to predict, but reliably catastrophic in its macro-effects,” he said.
Pry, in calling for greater Pentagon and Homeland Security attention to the issue, compared the potential for an attack to Pearl Harbor. He also presented an “EMP World War” scenario where all the countries with EMP warfare plans join in a “New Axis” to attack the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Pry even suggested that a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere above Omaha, Neb., could black out Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. He predicted that an attack would lead to “damage too broad and too deep to repair, requiring years, if the U.S. could survive for years.”
Without making relatively inexpensive fixes to the electric grid and military bases to protect against an EMP attack, Pry said that the end could come fast.
“There is no coming back,” said his report, adding:
Peter Pry, director of a bipartisan congressional commission called the EMP Task force.
The U.S. is an easy target because virtually everything, military and civilian, relies on computers, and even the Pentagon uses the civilian Internet. “Ours is the most technologically advanced society, and therefore the most susceptible to attack
The commission, the military and civilian groups have begun to take attacks on the U.S. electrical and Internet network more seriously, and they have discovered that those would be far more effective against the United States than a bomb.
“Although it is very difficult to predict exactly which electronic systems would be upset, damaged, or destroyed by an EMP attack, with certainty massive disruption and damage will be inflicted on unprotected electronics within the EMP field and, because of cascading failures, far beyond. EMP is analogous to carpet bombing or an artillery barrage that causes massive random damage that is specifically difficult to predict, but reliably catastrophic in its macro-effects,” he said.
Pry, in calling for greater Pentagon and Homeland Security attention to the issue, compared the potential for an attack to Pearl Harbor.
He also presented an “EMP World War” scenario where all the countries with EMP warfare plans join in a “New Axis” to attack the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
Pry even suggested that a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere above Omaha, Neb., could black out Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. He predicted that an attack would lead to “damage too broad and too deep to repair, requiring years, if the U.S. could survive for years.”
Without making relatively inexpensive fixes to the electric grid and military bases to protect against an EMP attack, Pry said that the end could come fast.
“There is no coming back,” said his report, adding:
“Everything is in blackout and nothing works. The EMP sparks widespread fires, explosions, all kinds of industrial accidents. Firestorms rage in cities and forests. Toxic clouds pollute the air and chemical spills poison already polluted lakes and rivers. In seven days, the over 100 nuclear power reactors run out of emergency power and go Fukushima, spreading radioactive plumes over the most populous half of the United States. There is not even any drinking water and the national food supply in regional warehouses begins to spoil in three days. There was only enough food to feed 320 million people for 30 days anyway.
Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
Several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication. EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of US society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power. The common element that can produce such an impact from EMP is primarily electronics, so pervasive in all aspects of our society and military, coupled through critical infrastructures. Our vulnerability is increasing daily as our use of and dependence on electronics continues to grow. The impact of EMP is asymmetric in relation to potential protagonists who are not as dependent on modern electronics. The current vulnerability of our critical infrastructures can both invite and reward attack if not corrected. Correction is feasible and well within the Nation's means and resources to accomplish.
The impact of such EMP is different and far more catastrophic than that effected by historic blackouts, in three primary respects: 1. The EMP impact is virtually instantaneous and occurs simultaneously over a much larger geographic area. Generally, there are neither precursors nor warning, and no opportunity for human-initiated protective action. The early-time EMP component is the “electromagnetic shock” that disrupts or damages electronics based control systems and sensors, communication systems, protective systems, and control computers, all of which are used to control and bring electricity from generation sites to customer loads in the quantity and quality needed.
The E1 pulse also causes some insulator flashovers in the lower-voltage electricity distribution systems (those found in suburban neighborhoods, in rural areas and inside cities), resulting in immediate broad-scale loss-of-load. Functional collapse of the power system is almost definite over the entire affected region, and may cascade into adjacent geographic areas.
2. The middle-time EMP component is similar to lightning in its time-dependence but is far more widespread in its character although of lower amplitude— essentially a great many lightning-type insults over a large geographic area which might obviate protection. The late-time EMP component couples very efficiently to long electrical transmission lines and forces large direct electrical currents to flow in them, although they are designed to carry only alternating currents. The energy levels thereby concentrated at the ends of these long lines can become large enough to damage major electrical power system components. The most significant risk is synergistic, because the middle and late-time pulses follow after the early-time pulse, which can impair or destroy protective and control features of the power grid. Then the energies associated with the middle and late-time EMP thus may pass into major system components and damage them. It may also pass electrical surges or fault currents into the loads connected to the system, creating damage in national assets that are not normally considered part of the infrastructure per se. Net result is recovery times of months to years, instead of days to weeks.
Proper functioning of the electrical power system requires communication systems, financial systems, transportation systems, and—for much of the generation—continuous or nearly continuous supply of various fuels. However, the fuel-supply, communications, transportation, and financial infrastructures would be simultaneously disabled or degraded in an EMP attack and are dependent upon electricity for proper functioning. For electrical system recovery and restoration of service, the availability of these other infrastructures is essential. The longer the outage, the more problematic, and uncertainty-fraught the recovery will be. The recent cascading outage of August 14, 2003, is an example of a single failure compounded by system weaknesses and human mistakes. It also provides an example of the effectiveness of protective equipment. However, with EMP there are multiple insults coupled with the disabling of protective devices simultaneously over an extremely broad region—damage to the system is likely and recovery slow.
US department of energy EMP resilience action plan
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/DOE%20EMP%20Resilience%20Action%20Plan%20January%202017.pdf
Several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication. EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of US society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power. The common element that can produce such an impact from EMP is primarily electronics, so pervasive in all aspects of our society and military, coupled through critical infrastructures. Our vulnerability is increasing daily as our use of and dependence on electronics continues to grow. The impact of EMP is asymmetric in relation to potential protagonists who are not as dependent on modern electronics. The current vulnerability of our critical infrastructures can both invite and reward attack if not corrected. Correction is feasible and well within the Nation's means and resources to accomplish.
The impact of such EMP is different and far more catastrophic than that effected by historic blackouts, in three primary respects: 1. The EMP impact is virtually instantaneous and occurs simultaneously over a much larger geographic area. Generally, there are neither precursors nor warning, and no opportunity for human-initiated protective action. The early-time EMP component is the “electromagnetic shock” that disrupts or damages electronics based control systems and sensors, communication systems, protective systems, and control computers, all of which are used to control and bring electricity from generation sites to customer loads in the quantity and quality needed.
The E1 pulse also causes some insulator flashovers in the lower-voltage electricity distribution systems (those found in suburban neighborhoods, in rural areas and inside cities), resulting in immediate broad-scale loss-of-load. Functional collapse of the power system is almost definite over the entire affected region, and may cascade into adjacent geographic areas.
2. The middle-time EMP component is similar to lightning in its time-dependence but is far more widespread in its character although of lower amplitude— essentially a great many lightning-type insults over a large geographic area which might obviate protection. The late-time EMP component couples very efficiently to long electrical transmission lines and forces large direct electrical currents to flow in them, although they are designed to carry only alternating currents. The energy levels thereby concentrated at the ends of these long lines can become large enough to damage major electrical power system components. The most significant risk is synergistic, because the middle and late-time pulses follow after the early-time pulse, which can impair or destroy protective and control features of the power grid. Then the energies associated with the middle and late-time EMP thus may pass into major system components and damage them. It may also pass electrical surges or fault currents into the loads connected to the system, creating damage in national assets that are not normally considered part of the infrastructure per se. Net result is recovery times of months to years, instead of days to weeks.
Proper functioning of the electrical power system requires communication systems, financial systems, transportation systems, and—for much of the generation—continuous or nearly continuous supply of various fuels. However, the fuel-supply, communications, transportation, and financial infrastructures would be simultaneously disabled or degraded in an EMP attack and are dependent upon electricity for proper functioning. For electrical system recovery and restoration of service, the availability of these other infrastructures is essential. The longer the outage, the more problematic, and uncertainty-fraught the recovery will be. The recent cascading outage of August 14, 2003, is an example of a single failure compounded by system weaknesses and human mistakes. It also provides an example of the effectiveness of protective equipment. However, with EMP there are multiple insults coupled with the disabling of protective devices simultaneously over an extremely broad region—damage to the system is likely and recovery slow.
US department of energy EMP resilience action plan
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/DOE%20EMP%20Resilience%20Action%20Plan%20January%202017.pdf
I hope this information didn't scare you too much. But sadly, it's a very real thing that could affect us all. I have much more information I could share, so if you have a question, shoot me an email: kendall@universe.com.au
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