# Sticky  EMP and HEMP: the similarities and differences



## PaulS

I think I will have to spread this out over a couple of pages so lets begin with Solar EMPs:

Information about EMP digested from 2007 *MIL - STD - 188 - 125 - 1 *

What is an EMP?
An EMP is a pulse of electromagnetic energy. It is an electrical current generated by a disruption in the Earth's magnetic field or induced and propagated through the displacement of electrons in the atmosphere. The kind of pulse is inherent in the way it is produced.

The most common EMP is a Solar EMP. These happen when the Sun emits charged particles through solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). If either of these two events happen to intersect the Earth's orbit the charged particles interrupt, twist and break the magnetic field lines that surround the earth. The rupture of the earth's magnetic field induces a current flow in long power lines just like the secondary windings in a transformer have current induced into them when the magnetic field of the primary winding collapse. This induced current flows along the power lines to transformers and generating stations building an overload in the lines, the transformers and the large generators. In the largest of these events the added current causes tremendous heat which burns the insulation away and melts the conductors causing fires and the explosion of cooling oils in the transformers. This build up of current is very slow, taking minutes to get high enough to cause damage and can be grounded at intervals to prevent damage to the wires and the components connected to them. In some places the use of fast switching integrated circuits have been fitted to the controls to prevent damage from solar EMPs. Solar EMPs represent little threat to homes and personal electronics because the damage to the system occurs long before the additional current gets to the sub systems that power your home. The danger is that the systems providing power will be damaged beyond repair and require replacement of these very large transformers, generators and many miles of transmission wires. Replacement is likely to take years and in a worst case decades and longer. The lack of a power grid cripples the entire hemisphere that is affected. There will be no power to pump water, natural gas or petroleum products. Transportation will come to a standstill so food deliveries and even food production will also stop. Hospitals that rely on power for critical care will run for a few days on their back-up generators but without replacement fuel they too will shut down. Imagine the entire northern half of the world without power. No food, water, health care, heating fuel or transportation.

It is fairly easy to prevent this damage by disconnecting the electrical grid into smaller sections and stopping production for the one or two days of the event. We will always have at least three days warning that we are in the way of a severe solar storm so it is possible to simply turn off the power during the event. The question is whether or not those in charge of the power grid will choose the safety of the system over the potential loss of income over the two days that the event can span. If they believe that the event is not likely to cause problems or are willing to bet that damage would be less than the loss of two days of power sales then they might allow the system to remain connected. You do not need to protect your home appliances or electronics from even the largest solar event. If you are concerned that a solar event might cause problems you can disconnect your home from the grid by throwing your breakers and going without power for the duration of the event. This would prevent any power surges or brown-outs from affecting you in any way.


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## PaulS

Then we have the "man made" HEMP:

Information about an HEMP:

An HEMP is a high altitude detonation of a nuclear device. The higher above the atmosphere the device is detonated the larger the area is that is affected. There are actually three EMPs produced by a high altitude nuclear detonation, the E1, E2, and E3 pulses. 

The E3 pulse is generated over minutes by the same mechanics as the solar EMP and has the same effect except that the effects are limited to the area from the detonation to the visible horizon instead of the entire hemisphere. It triggers similar power surges in long lines, large transformers and large power generators causing similar damages.

The E2 pulses is a secondary pulse with a fast rise time (shorter duration) and tends to affect shorter runs of wires and smaller transformers with moderate current loads of higher voltages compared to the E3 pulse. The E2 pulse lasts for up to a few seconds. The damage is spread out to some of the sub-systems of the electrical grids and can affect the pole mounted transformers that connect to home services. The surges from the E2 can cause power surges in home appliances and electronics but rarely cause damage inside the home. Standard surge suppressors and ferrite beads will protect your electronic equipment and appliances. 

The E1 pulse is the electronics killer. This is the pulse that concerns the military and communications folks the most. It is caused by the gamma particles pushing electrons from their atoms and away from the sight of the detonation. The free electrons travel toward the ground as the gamma particles continue to hit more electrons as they lose energy to each new electron. This causes a cascade effect with the free electrons generating very high voltages as they move toward the ground. Voltages at 50000 volts per meter are common with voltages over 100000 volts per meter expected under ideal conditions. The rise time is so fast that the frequency emitted is in the sub-millimeter range. These very high voltages travel through the air, water and even the ground to great depths. They penetrate most low conductors like wood, lead, and steel faster than they can flow around them. Because of their high frequency they can penetrate most insulators – even glass just like UHF radio waves and get through gaps as small as .1mm in any shielding. (about the same size as the period at the end of a sentence) The military works very hard to protect facilities with special shielding and wave guide protected points of entry (POE) in structures and equipment so that they are able to be likely to continue to operate during and after an E1 pulse. The E1 pulse penetrates the housings of semiconductors and by traveling along the conductors of electronic parts enters the junction region of them with very high voltages that destroy the junctions of semiconductors rendering them inactive. This is true of all semiconductors including the antiquated selenium rectifiers in old tube radios. Even the large diodes that make up solar panels are rendered useless by the E1 pulse. All this damage occurs in the first nanoseconds following the detonation and covers the entire area from the point of detonation to the line of sight horizon from the bombs point of reference. 

A detonation of a bomb like the one dropped on Hiroshima at 150 miles above the surface of the Earth over Omaha, Nebraska would wipe out all electronics in the area from Boston to Vancouver BC East to West and from the Northwest Territory in Canada to Mexico City in the north to south directions in the first milliseconds of the blast. At about the same time the sky would brighten your electronics would be dead. Only hardened military equipment and shielded equipment outside the military will survive. Electronic components sitting in warehouses on shelves awaiting delivery will be burnt up just as quickly as those in use in offices and homes in the affected area. The E1 pulse travels through buildings and enclosures unless they are properly shielded.

What is “Proper Shielding”?

Proper shielding requires the most conductive materials available. Silver, Gold, Copper and Aluminum are the best metals you can use to shield from the E1 pulse. The thicker the layer of metal the better protection provided as long as the gear inside is insulated and isolated from the shielding. The most accepted way to insulate is with good quality insulation like plastics. Isolation generally requires layers of insulation and conductors to prevent the capacitive reactance to transfer the voltage between the conductors and the gear being protected. 

If you have a conductive surface with an insulator between it and a similar conductive surface it is called a capacitor. When you apply a voltage to one of the plates a voltage of the opposite polarity is formed on the other plate to balance the charge on both sides of the insulator. The amount of current is proportional to the surface area of the conductors. It takes time to “charge” a capacitor so over the few nanoseconds of the E1 pulse three layers will diminish the charge build up to minimal levels that are not likely to harm the equipment inside the shielding. 

This means that for likely protection or probable shielding of your electronics you want to use three layers of conductors with layers of insulation between them and on the inside of your shielding. From the outside in: Aluminum, plastic, aluminum, plastic, aluminum, plastic and then your electronics in a plastic enclosure. All seams and joints of each layer must be double folded so that there are no gaps or holes in the aluminum or the insulation. To prevent holes and tears and to slow the reactance down you want to use thick foil – like the foil sold to bake turkeys in on Thanksgiving. The thicker it is the longer it takes to charge. 

An important point here; Copper and Silver take fewer layers to provide protection than aluminum because they are better conductors. If you wanted to use steel, like that trash can, you will need four times the number of layers as you need with aluminum because steel is only 25% as conductive as aluminum. You are better off using heavy duty aluminum foil than anything else due to cost, ease of forming, and availability.

Any enclosure with a gasket or a hinge leaves a path for the E1 pulse to penetrate. Shipping containers and ammo boxes are not good shielding for the E1 pulse unless you use many layers or tripple wrap them in aluminum and insulation. Steel will allow the E1 pulse to penetrate even if the enclosure has no holes in it because the steel has enough resistance that the pulse will go through the metal before it can travel around it. As cheap as heavy duty aluminum foil is you are far better off using it than anything else. 

Paint or other coverings diminish the protection of the shield by making them less conducting. Additional connections to the shielding, such as ground wires, act as conductive paths that channel more signal to a POE where they connect to the shield further reducing its performance. Shielding should be isolated from external grounds and free of any coatings.


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## PaulS

A quick note here about those fast switches that protect the power lines, the transformers and generators connected to them. They are utilizing microcircuits to provide very fast switching of very high powered components. The E1 pulse from an HEMP will burn them up long before the E3 pulse hits the power lines. They are of no help at all in this instance.

Current EMP testing is done using a high frequency pulsed microwave transmitter. It has very little relationship to the nanosecond rise times and extreme voltages of the E1 pulse. It does have some use in locating large gaps or holes in shielding but is of little use to test exposed components.


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## Auntie

Thank you so much for the tutorial. I think I understand it now.


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## Sasquatch

Looks like someone wants all of the teacher's gold star stickers! 

Nicely done sir.


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## A Watchman

Paul,

Glad to see you still here. Teach on brother!


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## 8301

Good to see you back Paul. I've misses your wisdom.


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## Operator6

Can emp penetrate water ? If so how deep ?


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## New guy 101

Paul ...welcome back....^^^^^^ good question.


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## Camel923

Great info Paul. Missed your knowledge and opinions


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## paraquack

Welcome back PaulS. I'm going to add the link to my file.
Thanks.


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## Illini Warrior

good article on EMPs popped up today - better technicals than you usually see in a prepper article - worth the read ....

The Truth About EMP Strikes and How to Prepare ? Geek Prepper


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## Redneck

Illini Warrior said:


> good article on EMPs popped up today - better technicals than you usually see in a prepper article - worth the read ....
> 
> The Truth About EMP Strikes and How to Prepare ? Geek Prepper


Thanks. But danged if they don't make the same mistake that I see over & over. From the article:

*Now, imagine if an EMP blast disabled all types of electrical systems and electronics in less than a second. The United States is instantly thrown back decades in terms of technology.*

We would be thrown back further than a few decades. Folks of 150 years ago would be much better off than us after an EMP strike. Yes, we both would be living without electricity, but they would have the tools, products, know how, infrastructure, etc. to live comfortably. The folks of 150 years ago got to that state of technology slowly & gradually... we would be thrown there basically instantly. It would not be pretty.


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## Illini Warrior

******* said:


> Thanks. But danged if they don't make the same mistake that I see over & over. From the article:
> 
> *Now, imagine if an EMP blast disabled all types of electrical systems and electronics in less than a second. The United States is instantly thrown back decades in terms of technology.*
> 
> We would be thrown back further than a few decades. Folks of 150 years ago would be much better off than us after an EMP strike. Yes, we both would be living without electricity, but they would have the tools, products, know how, infrastructure, etc. to live comfortably. The folks of 150 years ago got to that state of technology slowly & gradually... we would be thrown there basically instantly. It would not be pretty.


lucky if it's only decades - it's constantly being pushed that civilization would be thrown back centuries - the Dark ages would be upon us and it's all Book of Eli ....


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## paraquack

Rehash of other published data. Didn't see anything new.


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## rstanek

Thanks for the info....


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## Slippy

Anybody heard from PaulS?


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## Illini Warrior

paraquack said:


> Rehash of other published data. Didn't see anything new.


the three types of "E" wave emissions is rarely covered in the prepper related articles - that's good to see - the newbies don't always learn about the various factors involved in determing posible damage ...


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## Elvis

PaulS said:


> I think I will have to spread this out over a couple of pages so lets begin with Solar EMPs:
> 
> Information about EMP digested from 2007 *MIL - STD - 188 - 125 - 1 *
> 
> What is an EMP?
> An EMP is a pulse of electromagnetic energy. It is an electrical current generated by a disruption in the Earth's magnetic field or induced and propagated through the displacement of electrons in the atmosphere. The kind of pulse is inherent in the way it is produced.
> 
> The most common EMP is a Solar EMP. These happen when the Sun emits charged particles through solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). If either of these two events happen to intersect the Earth's orbit the charged particles interrupt, twist and break the magnetic field lines that surround the earth. The rupture of the earth's magnetic field induces a current flow in long power lines just like the secondary windings in a transformer have current induced into them when the magnetic field of the primary winding collapse. This induced current flows along the power lines to transformers and generating stations building an overload in the lines, the transformers and the large generators. In the largest of these events the added current causes tremendous heat which burns the insulation away and melts the conductors causing fires and the explosion of cooling oils in the transformers. This build up of current is very slow, taking minutes to get high enough to cause damage and can be grounded at intervals to prevent damage to the wires and the components connected to them. In some places the use of fast switching integrated circuits have been fitted to the controls to prevent damage from solar EMPs. Solar EMPs represent little threat to homes and personal electronics because the damage to the system occurs long before the additional current gets to the sub systems that power your home. The danger is that the systems providing power will be damaged beyond repair and require replacement of these very large transformers, generators and many miles of transmission wires. Replacement is likely to take years and in a worst case decades and longer. The lack of a power grid cripples the entire hemisphere that is affected. There will be no power to pump water, natural gas or petroleum products. Transportation will come to a standstill so food deliveries and even food production will also stop. Hospitals that rely on power for critical care will run for a few days on their back-up generators but without replacement fuel they too will shut down. Imagine the entire northern half of the world without power. No food, water, health care, heating fuel or transportation.
> 
> It is fairly easy to prevent this damage by disconnecting the electrical grid into smaller sections and stopping production for the one or two days of the event. We will always have at least three days warning that we are in the way of a severe solar storm so it is possible to simply turn off the power during the event. The question is whether or not those in charge of the power grid will choose the safety of the system over the potential loss of income over the two days that the event can span. If they believe that the event is not likely to cause problems or are willing to bet that damage would be less than the loss of two days of power sales then they might allow the system to remain connected. You do not need to protect your home appliances or electronics from even the largest solar event. If you are concerned that a solar event might cause problems you can disconnect your home from the grid by throwing your breakers and going without power for the duration of the event. This would prevent any power surges or brown-outs from affecting you in any way.


Damn Shame PaulS left this site. He really used to put a lot of research and thought into his posts.


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## Demitri.14

Thanks, Interesting article. If a HEMP should occur, everyone is pretty much screwed, Unless you have an underground bunker. It wont do you much good to protect your Beufeng radio, because everything else will be destroyed. The best plan is to know how to survive WITHOUT modern electric technology.

Is there any info on how a HEMP would effect metal ammo cartridges ? I would think that if a strong enough current would be induced in a brass case it could set off the cartridge. Even that tin can that holds the black powder would just go BOOM.


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## I'd_last_a_day

I called EMP Shield with some questions, and they told me that E1 (the worst of it) will not destroy diodes in solar panels, and that solar panels do not require EMP protection. I don’t know my stuff on this, I’m just telling you what I was told by EMP Shield (and I hung up the phone with them happy that I wouldn’t need to make room for huge solar panels in a faraday cage if they are not in use). They also mention how solar panels are not a concern for E1 in this interview…


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## Kauboy

I'd_last_a_day said:


> I called EMP Shield with some questions, and they told me that E1 (the worst of it) will not destroy diodes in solar panels, and that solar panels do not require EMP protection. I don’t know my stuff on this, I’m just telling you what I was told by EMP Shield (and I hung up the phone with them happy that I wouldn’t need to make room for huge solar panels in a faraday cage if they are not in use). They also mention how solar panels are not a concern for E1 in this interview…


I'm glad they're confident in their answers, though I question how they could actually know.
The panels might be fine, and the diodes might survive... but what are you connecting them to?
If we get an E1 pulse, anything with a microcontroller risks being completely fried.
Charge controller? Dead.
Inverter? Dead.
Any common household appliance? Dead.
If you hope of having anything to run on those panels, you might as well go with a room-sized Faraday cage. At that point, I'd ensure those panels are stored inside it, just to be safe.


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## BennyMG1

Thank you to the member that revived this post! Very interesting and well written read.


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## Demitri.14

I'm installing a Coal/Wood cookstove in my camp. No stinking EMP will disable that !


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## BennyMG1

Demitri.14 said:


> I'm installing a Coal/Wood cookstove in my camp. No stinking EMP will disable that !
> 
> View attachment 114075


So damn jealous right now!!!


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## I'd_last_a_day

Kauboy said:


> I'm glad they're confident in their answers, though I question how they could actually know.
> The panels might be fine, and the diodes might survive... but what are you connecting them to?
> If we get an E1 pulse, anything with a microcontroller risks being completely fried.
> Charge controller? Dead.
> Inverter? Dead.
> Any common household appliance? Dead.
> If you hope of having anything to run on those panels, you might as well go with a room-sized Faraday cage. At that point, I'd ensure those panels are stored inside it, just to be safe.


Yeah the guy said inverter and charge controller and batteries would be ruined ‘If not connected with EMP Shield in the circuit’…but solar panels are fine even if stashed away in my closet. I’m definitely not the guy to ask how that works, but in the interview it sounds like the over voltage/current gets grounded with the Shield even faster than how fast E1 takes place. I’m a total novice but my rookie questions would be isn’t it the current that causes heat? And if so, E1 is SO fast that it might just “Appear” to melt everything instantly, but if EMP Shield grounds everything even faster than the E1 wouldn’t the heat never build up in the first place to melt anything? I watched this video where a guy was claiming that these protection devices are bogus because everything sort of “Gets melted instantly” but that question popped into my head (that technically none of it happens instantly). It would be nice to watch a technical debate on this between two people who know there stuff, although I would think that one of them would be mistaken because the mechanics of electrical engineering isn’t exactly a subject that’s up for debate like philosophy is lol.

Btw he said that the EMP Shield goes after the wires from panels and before the charge controller.


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## inceptor

I'd_last_a_day said:


> Yeah the guy said inverter and charge controller and batteries would be ruined ‘If not connected with EMP Shield in the circuit’…but solar panels are fine even if stashed away in my closet. I’m definitely not the guy to ask how that works, but in the interview it sounds like the over voltage/current gets grounded with the Shield even faster than how fast E1 takes place. I’m a total novice but my rookie questions would be isn’t it the current that causes heat? And if so, E1 is SO fast that it might just “Appear” to melt everything instantly, but if EMP Shield grounds everything even faster than the E1 wouldn’t the heat never build up in the first place to melt anything? I watched this video where a guy was claiming that these protection devices are bogus because everything sort of “Gets melted instantly” but that question popped into my head (that technically none of it happens instantly). It would be nice to watch a technical debate on this between two people who know there stuff, although I would think that one of them would be mistaken because the mechanics of electrical engineering isn’t exactly a subject that’s up for debate like philosophy is lol.
> 
> Btw he said that the EMP Shield goes after the wires from panels and before the charge controller.


I'm sorry but I wouldn't trust anyone who gives you absolute answers. There are no absolute answers here. Good guesses maybe but that's it. This is unknown territory here along with too many variables. No one has experience in this department because we have yet to really experience one. The closest anyone has come was the bomb detonated over the Pacific in the 60's that took out power in Hawaii. So much has changed since then and it's never been tried again. Here is an article about this from 2019.









The US accidentally hit Hawaii with an EMP in the 1960s


On July 9, 1962, the United States launched a Thor rocket armed with a W49 thermonuclear warhead up to an altitude of around two hundred and fifty miles




sofrep.com


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