Pakistan Defence

I can try. Depends on the questions.

Thanks!Ok, so they're gonna be a bit theoretical questions for the most part, you're probably gonna be rolling your eyes at some of them but if you can indulge i'd much appreciate it.

Character limit of 420 in theses posts..gonna have to split

So first one:
What is the minimum required number of orbital EMP generators to cover the whole surface from a height of 500-1000km?No need to concern yourself with power requirements for these generators, i'm just interested in geometry, ie from how many points EMP burst has to come from and from what position.

If there is an optimal position for this, i'd like to know that too...if it for example deviates from the 500-1000km condition given above.
Many thanks in advance.

Part 1. While what you asked for is theoretical, it is not new. In fact, it was calculated 50 yrs ago. Look up 'Starfish Prime'. Back in 1962, a 1.4 megaton nuclear bomb was detonated over Johnston Island at orbital altitude 400 km. The present day International Space Station is at that altitude. At the time of that detonation, the Hawaiian Islands 1300 miles east of Johnston felt the EMP effects.

Part 2. Up until that time, EMP effects were mostly confined to the labs. It was not until months later that scientists finally realized what really happened to the Hawaiian Islands. These tests were conducted only by the US and the Soviet Union, the tests stopped at the Cuban Missile Crisis, and never resumed because the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

Part 3. So when it comes to actual nuclear level EMP effects literature, you will not find much because of LTBT. But Starfish Prime was essentially the first recorded EMP effects on technology, on Earth and into space.

Part 4. The problem for what you asked for is that there are many factors involved. Despite the hyperboles, from politicians to technologists to our Chinese friends on this forum, crippling a country's technology base via EMP is not that easy, as we extrapolated data from Starfish Prime. The Earth's atmosphere lessens the EMP effects to some degrees.

Part 5. From Starfish Prime, the worst damages occurred to LEO satellites and those damages literally spanned over months.

Part 6. Compton electrons creates the EMP effects. In orbit, high energy electrons degraded those satellites via the capacitor effects. In essence, the satellites' materials became capacitors, sending unexpected stray electrons throughout a satellite's various systems, leading to eventually a non-functioning satellite.

Part 7. Another effect is that the high energy electrons are trapped by the planet's magnetic field and can linger literally for yrs. A satellite maybe shielded so that these high energy electrons cannot affect its internal operations.

Part 8. On the other hand, the satellite's external operations, such as radio transmissions, will be affected by these trapped high energy electrons, rendering the satellite essentially useless to its Earth owner. If humans are to exploit space, especially for communication, atmospheric and orbital nuclear explosions must stop -- the Limited Test Ban Treaty.

Part 9. On Earth, the worst the Hawaiians suffered from EMP were interrupted music radio, flickering street lights, and unexpected garage doors actuations. Today, because of progress where there are so many electronic devices, interference is inevitable so device manufacturers built in some EMP shielding into their devices.

Part 10. In other words, out of the fear and need for interference protection, device manufacturers unknowingly made their products more resistant to EMP attacks, intentional or not. Because of this, a nuclear level EMP will render many devices temporarily inoperable but not destroyed via explosions like how the entertainment industry often portrayed. Starfish Prime was 1.4 megaton.

Part 11. The EMP effects from higher yield are unknown and at best extrapolated. That extrapolation is problematic in that so few of the atmospheric tests were done with emphasis on studying the EMP effects, as in we do not know how the planet's atmosphere will influence the high energy electrons' behaviors.

Part 12. EMP effects must obey the inverse square law, and you can look that up. The Hawaiian Islands chain was 1300 miles east of Johnston Island and the worst was that the EMP effects annoyed the islanders. That mean the most EMP damage that can occur should be directly below the blast.

Part 13. This is what make your question about the ideal geometries for multiple atmospheric and/or orbital EMP devices highly problematic. You do not know the true resistive properties of the targets and how the atmosphere will -- not merely can -- influence the highly energetic electrons that creates the EMP effects in order to calculate your yield.

I see. Thanks for the indepth answer and pointing out Starfish Prime to me. That's some nice info in there.

I think you need some context:
I am not doing any thesis or anything like that, am writing a sci fi thriller, so i have the luxury to not really care about atmospheric density and power requirements to push the burst through a medium with varying resistances...