Re: EM pulse

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

"... The amplitude, duration and polarization of the wave depend on the
location of the burst, the type of weapon, the yield, and the relative
position of the observer. The electric field resulting from a
high altitude nuclear detonation can be on the order of 50 kilovolts per
meter with a rise time on the order of 10 nanoseconds and a decay time to
half maximum of about 200 nanoseconds. It is very fast."

let's see that's 50 V/mm   but not very long lasting.  So total energy
likely quite insufficient to melt the plastic from the hot Al.  No?
Another thread discussed the Field generated by an oven on a wire (or was
it a CD).

Comparison:

500 W oven one sec. 500 J's  over area ~ 100cm^2   5 J's / cm^2.   Or ~
one calorie.  Nah, not enuff, but wait, the reflective coating is thin,
thin, thin ~ 100 Å.  My guess as it's very translucent.   Mass:   1 cm^2
* 0.01 micron not much

about cd's:  http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/cd.html

bc

P.s.  much more info abt. effects:   around p 14

 http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/security/has197010.000/has197010_1.HTM

P.p.s. Glasstone hs a different take on this saying there is also field
displacement mechanism, that's in '62.


much more:

"Edmiston, Mike" wrote:

> Putting a CD in a microwave oven for just one second is sufficient ev=
> idence that a strong time-varying EM field is devastating to a CD.  T=
> he question I don't know is how close one would need to be to a nucle=
> ar explosion to have EM pulses that can do this to the CD.
>
> Of course, if you are too close to the detonation the CD gets destroy=
> ed by heat or from the building crumbling around it.  So the question=
>  is whether the EM pulse outside the blast and heat damage regions is=
>  sufficient to cause melting in the thin metallic foil of the CD.  We=
>  know the EM pulse beyond the blast/heat zone is sufficient to ruin t=
> ransistors; especially CMOS transistors.  But CMOS is destroyed at mu=
> ch lower fields than a CD would be.
>
> We also know the government has researched and built different types =
> of nuclear weapons.  A weapon (and its detonation height) can be desi=
> gned to maximize blast, or maximum heat, or maximize neutrons, or max=
> imum EM pulse, etc.  Two CDs equidistant from two different weapons m=
> ight be destroyed in different ways.  A weapon designed to maximum EM=
>  pulse might make the CD look like it came out of a microwave oven, w=
> hereas a weapon designed for blast/heat might make the CD look like i=
> t came out of an incinerator.
>
> In the end, I personally can answer the question in the following way=
> .
>
> (1) A strong enough EM can certianly destroy a CD.
> (2) Blast and heat can destroy a CD.
> (3) Whether the CD could have survived the blast/heat but it got clob=
> bered by the EM pulse depends on things like
>
> (a) How far is it from the center of the detonation?
> (b) What type of building is it housed in?
> (c) What orientation does it have with respect to the EM pulse propag=
> ation?
> (d) What type of nuclear device was detonated?
>
> Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.=09=09=09Phone/voice-mail:=09419-358-3270
> Professor of Chemistry & Physics=09FAX:=09=09=09=09419-358-3323
> Chairman, Science Department=09=09E-Mail=09=09=09edmiston@bluffton.ed=
> u
> Bluffton College
> 280 West College Avenue
> Bluffton, OH 45817