Acknowledging the HEMP threat

摘要

Severe electrical disturbances can be caused by nuclear blasts. A weapon exploded at least 40 miles above the earth does no direct pressure or temperature damage but generates a large high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) that has three components-an extremely fast, high-amplitude El pulse, E2 similar to lightning, and E3, which is a slowly changing magnetic-field phenomenon that can induce huge currents in very long conductors such as power and communications lines. The effects of E3 are similar to geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) caused by a large solar storm and were the theme of a previous EE-Evaluation Engineering article.