What is an EMP?
EMP is shorthand for Electro Magnetic Pulse. It is a rather unusual and frightening by-product when a nuclear bomb is detonated above the earth’s atmosphere. We all know that our atmosphere and the magnetic field which surrounds our planet is a thin layer which not only keeps us alive, but also protects us from dangerous radiation from the sun. On a fairly regular basis there are huge solar storms on the sun’s surface which emit powerful jets of deadly radiation. If not for the protective layer of our atmosphere and magnetic field, those storms would fry us. At times though, the storm is so power that enough disruptive energy reaches the earth’s surface that it drowns out radio waves and even shorts electrical power grids. . .this happened seve ral years back in Canada.
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a quick, powerful blast of electromagnetic energy that ranges across a significant portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The most frequently cited source of an EMP is a nuclear weapon. Indeed, the easiest way to generate the energy for an EMP is through an abrupt chemical or nuclear explosion, and devices for creating EMPs in the absence of such an explosion are known to be relatively weak. The general idea of an EMP is that it wreaks havoc on electronics, but leaves other physical structures mostly untouched. Real-life electromagnetic pulses released by high-altitude nuclear tests have fused power wires, triggered burglar alarms, and caused breakage in radios, TVs, and power lines as far as 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away. The source of this disruption is a large-scale, intensely fluctuating magnetic field created when high-energy photons from an explosion knock electrons from their atomic orbits. This disruption becomes trapped within the earth’
