EMP strike possible?

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It is certainly possible but in my opinion a very low probability.
Top of my list is financial collapse/chaos. This could be just as bad or even worse than an EMP strike.
Next on my list would be a worldwide pandemic.
EMP is down farther on my list.
 
There is a lot of chatter on a false flag HEMP taking place in the near future. The deep government is scared and desperate and the thinking is that they will use it to regain control.
Unless it is at low altitude (30 to 60 miles) it will also destroy any holdings that they have too so it is most likely going to be a limited event like 9-11 was.
A lot depends on the sealed indictments being served quickly and the military tribunals convicting the movers and shakers involved.
 
Natural and man made emp alike is very possible. But yet,i beleive the seriousness of each one, vary with each day/week/month/year..and all we can do. Is to keep track of each. While preparing for the possibility of one, the best we can..
 
Natural EMPs, from giant solar flares and coronal mass ejections (world wide CMEs) we will have a minimum of three days notice. That is plenty of time to shut the grid down to keep it from total destruction. Whether those in control choose to do it or not is the question. The man made (HEMPs) varieties from high altitude nuclear blasts (over 30 miles up) will provide no notice and they will destroy the infrastructure.
They will take out the electronic controls first (in the first nanosecond) and then the transformers, wires and generators before anything can be done to protect the grid. There will be very little remaining an hour or so after the bright light in the sky. Although there is no blast or radiation threat it will kill a lot of people due to the lack of power. No electricity means no fuel, no transportation, no food, no water, no sewage controls, and no hospitals that can function beyond a walk in clinic type of care. The banking system will shut down so no credit, no transactions at all. The internet will be unavailable and your computers won't work anyway. It will take decades to recover from a total HEMP attack and years for a local recovery. (if a small area is attacked) A "small area" would be about a 50 mile radius of total destruction of the infrastructure with less damage going out about 750 miles around that. I am assuming that the deep state would use that kind of "attack" for a false flag event.
The event would be a satellite de-orbiting and at about 30 to 40 miles up it detonates. A small (25 pound) nuclear device is all it would take to do limited damage at that altitude. There would be no way to detect it or even identify it from the other junk orbiting the planet. A planted message that makes the claim of some terrorist group taking the credit for it and we are off to fight another war. Unless we can trace it to the real culprits we could cause WWIII. That would put the deep state back in control. That needs to be prevented at all cost.
 
As of 2017 there's at least 325.7 million ppl in the U. S. .if a solor flare emp, like the corrigan effect. Was to hit earth again. And if there's a 90% die off.that'd leave somewhere around 3.6188888889% .I'm assuming that less then 2% of that will die off. On account they will will the ones that can't/won't fend for themselves. Much less grow their own food. That leaves, 1.809444445...then there's disease, wildlife etc etc. Seeing how they're multipling faster now. And fewer ppl to keep their numbers in check..
 
The solar flare or CME would be seen days in advance. Since solar flares and CMEs only effect the long transmission lines and the large transformers and generators attached to them it is easy to prevent problems. Solar flares and CMEs don't effect people or electronics (other than some radio temporary interference) there is unlikely to be any deaths unless the grid is left active during the event. Any grid down event is going to result in the death of more than 50% of the population. I doubt that more than 75% would die off in any solar event. Communication is still available and repairs will begin right away on any damaged systems. If the grid is shut down before the event the damage will be minimal and take no more than a week to get it back to 100%. If the grid is left active then the damage will be almost inconceivable and take decades to repair. If the Asian and European countries don't shut down too then the plants that make the generators and transformers will be unable to build replacements and it will take many decades to recover. Remember that solar flares and CMEs affect the entire world and not just one continent or hemisphere. They are global events.
 
Before a CME hits be sure to flip the main breaker coming into your home to protect your system and all the goodies in it. I would expect this to help protect your transformer as well. I'd also flip all the breakers in my panel but that is probably overkill. It is also free so why not.
 
I could see limited emp in conjunction with cyber attacks as a precursor to invasion or something but not as easy to pull off as some say imo. Cyber attacks with the same net result are much more likely I think. Dont need to procure all the hardware and expose yourself nearly as much to pull off a cyber attack. Grid down would certainly be disastrous in this world we have built for ourselves though.
 
Breaking the connection between your home and the grid is a good idea to prevent damage to your appliances but the transformers at the local sub stations will probably act like fuses before the pulse gets to you. A man made EMP can be made three ways. The first is a conventional bomb (like C4 or RDX wrapped in a conductor so when it goes off it generates a low level magnetic pulse. These things have a limited range - about 30 to fifty meters - and will only affect a small area and are easy to protect against with standard ferrite chokes. These are the little metallic beads on your computer cables. The next isn't an EMP at all. It is a microwave pulse gun. These have a slightly longer range but are very directional in order to disable the electronics in a single place. The military uses them to take out communication centers. The main drawback is that the device has to be mounted on a vehicle that can stay on station for from a few minutes to hours. Standard microwave screening makes it useless.
The last and most devastation is a nuclear device that is detonated above the atmosphere (HEMP). At high altitudes the blast and radiation won't get to the ground but the Gamma particles will penetrate almost any shielding and tear electronic components apart in space craft and satellites. Lucky for us the atmosphere gets in the way of the Gamma particles as they travel through the atmosphere. That is what causes the E1 pulse though and that is very bad for our electronics. The Gamma particles move electrons away from the atoms they are attached to and polarize the atmosphere from the bomb to the visible horizon. The air itself becomes a plasma with a positive charge of about 50,000 volts per meter. That means that everything that has contact with the atmosphere also becomes charged to 50,000 volts in under one nanosecond. There is a capacitive effect that will charge plates in proximity to each other so it takes more than just a metal box to stop the E1 pulse. Those lost electrons get caught in the magnetic field lines and when they cascade it causes the E2 pulse which is very similar to a lightning strike but over the entire area. The last effect is determined by that yield of the bomb. The bomb acts on the magnetic lines in the area bending them out of position - just like a solar flare or CME - that causes the E3 pulse which is what effects the long wires, generators and large transformers. The current is so high that the wires and windings melt from the heat generated.
the E1 and E2 pulse have very little change when the size of the bomb changes. The yield of the bomb only affects the E3 pulse. The other two are generated by the nuclear material that escapes the actual fission process. Nuclear and thermonuclear bombs are only 2 to 6% effective. That means that 94 to 98% of the material is given off as Gamma and other particles.Those particles cause the E1, E2 and other radioactive radiation and fallout. Ground and air bursts produce a very limited EMP and it is a negative polarity instead of positive. In that case the electrons are causing the pulse instead of getting pulled away by the magnetic lines of the earth. If the building you are in is still standing after the ground or air burst (2 to 5 miles high) then the EMP probably won't affect you. The radiation from the blast can but with a couple of yards of earth or concrete you should be in good shape. Just be aware of any fallout - especially with ground bursts. All that dirt and rock that is now a crater is in the air and falling. That's why it's called fallout.
 
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So when you say 50,000 volts in the air and were outside, are you saying that all strait hair people will have a permanent curls? Lol on a serious note what happens to people and animals who come in contact with that voltage?
 
The voltage does not affect living tissue. It exists for too short a time period to affect people or animals. It builds up in less than a nanosecond (1billionth of a second) and dissipates completely in less than 100th of a millisecond. It does not oscillate, like AC voltage or radio waves it is a positive pulse of very high voltage that builds very fast and then is gone. That process is able to burn out the junction of semiconductors and conduct over long distances but not good at penetrating skin. It is thought that internal devices like pacemakers and auto injection devices that are planted in the human body will be fine but your electronic watch and phone will be toast. Typical electromagnetic shielding doesn't stop it because it is not an alternating frequency like microwaves.
 
OK, so after all this discussion, so what can we do to minimize our personal impact. If we shut off breakers does that mean our electronics are safe? Will hard drives be toast? Will my backup generator stored in the shed be toast? Vehicles? Will solar panels melt?
If the govt is going to "harden" their systems, what do they actually do or install?
What can John Q Public do to cover his ass?
 
masterspark said:
OK, so after all this discussion, so what can we do to minimize our personal impact. If we shut off breakers does that mean our electronics are safe? Will hard drives be toast? Will my backup generator stored in the shed be toast? Vehicles? Will solar panels melt?
If the govt is going to "harden" their systems, what do they actually do or install?
What can John Q Public do to cover his ass?
Click to expand...
I don't believe no one really knows. Tests, assumptions and "expert" opinions. But until someone or something actual causes one...
 
Shutting off your breaker is not a guarantee that electronic devices in your home will be safe, the pulse will damage sensitive electronics no matter where they are located (plugged in or not). While the government does have knowledge of EMP effects from their nuclear tests most of the studies were done decades ago when electronics were not as micro-miniaturized as they are today. Advanced technology of today makes it even easier for those components to be burned out.

Solar panels themselves will not be affected by the EMP. What would be affected would be the charge controller. The battery bank would not be harmed.

Computers would most likely be toast as would modern vehicles, having more and more electronics involved in the ignition of the engine.
 
I have heard folks talk about a Faraday box to protect certain electronics but don't quite know what that entails. It would be nice to be able to have a hard drive with all my files protected somewhere.
I'm surprised more is not known about this.
 
I have some radios and other items in a steel trash can. Removed the handles and covered all holes with metal tape. Lined the inside with corrugated cardboard to insulate the items from the can.

Hopefully, if needed, it will attenuate the pulse enough to help.
 
There are a lot of myths on the net. That garbage can storage is one of the worst. You can attenuate a radio frequency but not a DC pulse like the E1 pulse from an HEMP.
A Faraday box was originally designed to ground high voltage from a point source - like lightning by guiding the voltage around the person in the box which was actually a cage of iron bars.
Later Faraday boxes were mage of copper mesh and used to block radio emissions by grounding them. An E1 pulse is not a radio signal it is the ionization of the atmosphere and it happens in less than a nanosecond (one billionth of a second). In order to stop that fast rise time voltage change you need to use capacitive reactance. That requires a very good conductor - Gold, Silver, Copper or Aluminum - in at least three layers with a good insulator between each of the conductors and around whatever you want to protect. For small devices like a hard drive or a DVD drive you can put the drive in a zip-loc bag, wrap it in a heavy duty aluminum foil, put that into another zip-loc bag and again cover it in aluminum foil, put that into a zip-loc bag and cover it with another layer of aluminum foil. The protection comes from the layers because each layer takes longer to charge and the time diminishes the charge that is transferred. Since the pulse is gone so quickly it won't make it all the way to the device you want protected (not at any large voltage). The garbage can is steel covered in zinc - not a very good conductor and the cardboard inside is not a very good insulator. As soon as there is a charge applied to the trash can an opposite charge of the same voltage is applied to whatever is inside even if you could make the can and cardboard air tight.. There is little if any protection from the E1 pulse. It might work well for a lightning strike if the can was grounded but not for the E1 pulse.
A note about grounding. It only works when the ground is opposite in polarity and capable of dispersing the energy of the pulse. Since the E1 pulse also electrifies the ground to a depth of 30 feet, any ground wire becomes a conductor for the pulse. Never ground a device used for HEMP protection unless you are talking about a chassis ground like on a vehicle or cabinet.
Solar panels are arrays of diodes. An E1 pulse is likely going to burn them out along with any electronic controls connected to them. It is nearly impossible to protect any operating electronics from the E1 pulse. You can store spares or spare parts in properly shielded storage but if you have wires running to or from it any protection is a waste of time. A room can be made E1 proof but it takes a very complex seal on the door and a self contained air supply. The room is constructed the same way your zip-loc and aluminum storage with three or more layers between you and the outside. You will have to use batteries in the room to run electronics and the only connections to the outside of that room must go through fiber optics cables which won't transmit the pulse. Any hole in your protection removes a layer of protection. All seams must be double folded and air tight. Remember that you are not trying to exclude radio frequencies you are trying to exclude air molecules that are carrying a charge.
 
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