The Space Review  solar storm   Bookmark and Share  A nuclear
weapon explodes high above the US, unleashing a deadly
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that almost instantly knocks out
much of our electrical grid. The electronic control systems in
our water, oil, and gas distribution systems fail, and other
infrastructure such as telecommunications and transport grind to
a halt. While it would be far too high up in the atmosphere
(40–400 kilometers) to directly kill people by blast and heat,
such an attack would have “the capability to produce significant
damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric
of US society”, according to the congressional “Commission to
Assess the Threat to the U.S. from EMP Attack”.  But how likely
is this scenario and what should we do about it? The methodology
and conclusions of the EMP commission have already been
criticized a few years ago [1,2,3]. Here I examine the salient
technical issues and attempt to compare the threat of nuclear
EMP with that from a powerful “onc