A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation created by a nuclear explosion. The resulting electric and magnetic fields can cause current and voltage surges that can damage electrical and electronic systems. The characteristics of a nuclear EMP event depend on the altitude of the detonation. The nuclear EMP is a time-varying electromagnetic radiation that is generated by a nuclear explosion.
If a 10 megaton detonation were to occur 200 miles above the center of the continental United States, it would affect nearly the entire country, as well as parts of Mexico and Canada, with an emission that would destroy virtually all electronic devices and electrical transformers. To protect networks, especially military command and control systems, from such an event, procedures known as “hardening” are employed. The fact that a nuclear explosion produces an electromagnetic pulse was known in the early days of nuclear weapons testing. The time-varying current produces the emission of a short pulse of electromagnetic radiation that is more intense in directions perpendicular to the current; this is the EMP.
Components that are sensitive to damage caused by sudden pulses of electromagnetic energy should be eliminated. Even a low-energy pulse has access to the power supply, and the pulse illuminates all parts of the system. The potential of an electromagnetic pulse emitted by a nuclear weapon at high altitude has long been recognized. The EMP Commission sponsored a global survey of foreign scientific and military literature to assess foreign states' knowledge and intentions regarding EMP attacks. This interaction of negatively charged electrons with the magnetic field radiates a pulse of electromagnetic energy. Whether caused by man or nature, electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) have the potential to permanently interrupt and damage electrical components and entire systems in most critical infrastructure sectors and affect infrastructure on a large scale.
The Bluegill Triple Prime and Kingfish high-altitude nuclear tests, carried out in October and November 1962 within the framework of Operation Fishbowl, provided data clear enough to allow physicists to accurately identify the physical mechanisms underlying electromagnetic pulses. The two main types of large simulators are metal structures that guide an electromagnetic wave past a test object and antennas that radiate an electromagnetic field to the object. In July, Chinese researchers urged their government to increase the country's readiness to defend itself against a high-altitude EMP attack. As a result, the ionized ion reservoir (source) region is stimulated to emit much of its energy in the form of an electromagnetic pulse in the radio frequency spectrum. In military terminology, a nuclear warhead that detonates tens or hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface is known as a high-altitude EMP device (HEMP). However, if the symmetry of the ionized sphere is altered, non-radial oscillations will begin and energy will be emitted in the form of a pulse of electromagnetic radiation, much of which is in the radio frequency region of the spectrum.
