| From: | JS Bracher JSBracher@**************.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Electro-Magnetic Pulse Questions |
| Date: | Mon, 23 Oct 2000 10:23:30 -0700 |
An EMP is just a surge of charged particles. Okay, a very large surge
of charged particles. There are a number of ways to do this. The best
for causing targeted damage to localized systems is a MASER. This is
sort of a microwave laser. It can do damage to both organic tissue and
electronics. The amount, range, and spread vary with the power and
generation system.
MASERs are real-world tech in use today. If you look around for info on
them, you should be able to turn up as much as you need.
Most MASERs in use today are for communication. At low power they do a
good job of signal transmission. But if you up the voltage, you can
make the sparks fly. Literally.
With today's tech, a Van-sized MASER would take out all the electronics
along the beam path, possibly for several city blocks. The problem
would be arcing to the van metal, sparks as the beam hit anything
conductive, etc. This would not be a subtle weapon.
The damage results from the targeted electronics suddenly having much
more voltage than they were built to handle. Imagine hooking a fire
hose up to your home plumbing. Water would start spurting from
everywhere as pipes broke. (Actually, I do not know if this would
happen to home plumbing, but it makes for a useful image).
You can hear an EMP if you have your radio on during a lightning storm.
The burst of static is an EMP. This is why turning off all sensitive
electronics is a good idea. It disconnects the gear from the electrical
grid (so lightning that strikes the grid won't surge down the power
lines and fry the TV, a friend lost a computer that way), and reduces
the power in the circuits, so any additional power from the EMP is less
likely to overload them.
As for the Matrix, all electromagnetic systems would fail. Those
nearby, but suffering less voltage, would suffer static. Optical
systems would be fine, unless any metal in the optical systems sparked
and caused damage to the optical fibers and optical switches. I suspect
there would be a lot of techs doing component replacement.
If a node were electromagnetic, the Matrix view of the event might be
the equivalent of a nova. The node would flare as the power surge
overloaded it. Sort of the Matrix version of "rockets bursting in
air". But optical systems would just shut down as power failed or
components melted. You might get limited scaring: the optical fibers
would not be completely transparent, but would have localized defects,
reducing signal transmission range and signal clarity.
A friend of a friend was (I'm told) in Hawaii during some of the last
nuclear air burst tests over the Pacific. The generated EMPs were
generated quite a distance away, but it made the light bulbs color
fluctuate. Suddenly you were seeing a rainbow shine out from the light
fixture.
Military hardware is hardened against EMPs. The Air Force has a large
hanger they put gear in and then generate large, localized EMPs to test
equipment survivability. I suspect the Navy and Army have something
too.
As mentioned in a post from someone else, you can build a Faraday cage
to protect electronics. It's a metal cage around equipment that absorbs
and grounds the pulse. It's the full-protection version of a lightning
rod, and works in a very similar way.
Answering the points below-
1) Corps should not be taken out by this. Most off-line mass storage we
use today would be fine. This would not affect CDROMs. Disk drives
would become scrap or scrambled. Anything backed up should be fine,
anything not backed up might be lost. The Corps have to buy some new
tech, but can then reload data from backups, and then have to recreate
all the lost data. A major cost, but not terminal unless they were on
the edge anyway and could not cover the expense.
Most of the damage would be to civilians. All Walkman's, PDAs, cell
phones, etc. would be scrap. Major Corp stuff should be hardened.
Equipment in offices would probably be toast, but main servers might be
protected.
2) We can build these things today. All you need is a moderate amount
of cash and a bored physics major. Major EMPs just need a much bigger
check.
3) Others have answered this well.
4) EMPs should take out all security devices that are electromagnetic.
All remote cameras, sensors, etc. The optical network might be fine,
but the metal in the equipment is going to be struck by lightning.
Security personal should immediately notice the major systems failure.
The security teams might not be able to communicate with each other, but
there would be as large a response as they can muster. Magical
resources should be fine.
An intrusion team would need to be hardened against EMPs, protected from
it (like in a 'Faraday Cage' van), or not use equipment subject to EMPs,
or not in the beam path if a MASER is used. This would be a great way
for a mage or shaman to take out samurai.
Strago wrote:
>
> Has anyone else seen the Fox TV show Dark Angel? In it, some
> organization sends the entire US back to the Dark Ages by detonating
> an electro-magnetic pulse in the atmosphere. I understand the effects
> of an EMP, but I have a few questions, some relating to Shadowrun.
> >From what I've read, I know that an EMP is one of the side effects of
> a nuclear detonation. Thus, the easiest way to set up an EMP is to
> detonate a nuke above your target. I do wonder, though, if that's the
> ONLY way to get an EMP.
> Secondly, is there a way to localize the pulse or direct it?
> Thirdly, is there only one size pulse? For instance, could you pulse
> the lobby of a building but leave the upper floors with their
> electronics intact?
> And now for the Shadowrun questions, building on the above:
> 1) What would happen if someone used an EMP in downtown Seattle? Would
> it knock out the corps?
> 2) Is there any non-corporate group which has the capability to do the
> above?
> 3) What would happen to any deckers on the Matrix when an EMP hit?
> Dump shock? Or worse?
> 4) Would a runner group feasibly be able to use EMP to take out
> security?
>
> --
> --Strago
>
> All Hail Apathy! Or don't. Whatever. -abortion_engine
>
> SRGC v0.2 !SR1 SR2+ SR3++ h b++ B- UB- IE+ RN+ SRFF W+ sa++ ma++ ad+
> m+ (o++ d+) gm+ M P
