Protection from EMP OR CME

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Delki

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2013
Messages
2
In case of a CME (coronal mass ejection) that fries electronics equipment and power grids does the leaf need protection . Is it better to unplug it?
 
Delki said:
In case of a CME (coronal mass ejection) that fries electronics equipment and power grids does the leaf need protection . Is it better to unplug it?


It is unlikely that only unplugging the Leaf would prevent either EMP or CME (massive overloads of E and H field radiation). If the vehicle were protected by a shield, either a grounded metal mesh covering, or under cover of ground (say in the lowest basement parking garage or in a cave), it MIGHT be safe from effects. OTOH I can't see driving around after an Event of such magnitude.
 
I would think that no modern car would survive that unharmed. They all have electronics that would be affected, and that they can't run without.
 
A CME is unlikely to harm any unplugged electronics. The mechanism for damage from CMEs is that there is a very wide-scale slow ramp-up (or down) of the magnetic fields around the earth. This ramp induces a Faraday's law voltage and current in huge, open loops of wire (read: the power grid), which have length scales of hundreds of miles. That current is unipolar during the ramp-up, and saturates the cores of transformers (which can only tolerate a very small net flux. The transformers are designed for 60 Hz AC, and the flux is the integral of voltage*time, so a long, slow transient carries a huge flux. This flux-driven saturation then causes them to rapidly overheat, since once they saturate they effectively become a short-circuit and start dissipating power. They then fail, resulting in potential grid collapse. Your car just isn't big enough to intercept enough flux to be affected by this phenomenon. Even if plugged in, the probability of damage is fairly low, since it mostly just cuts the power, and damages the grid equipment.

Even _most_ EMP scenarios are much more damaging to the grid than to unplugged devices. Again, the grid is a very big antenna. In the case of EMPs, though, where a large, fast transient is injected, they can potentially be very harmful to plugged-in electronics. If you are close enough to the source of an EMP that your unplugged vehicle is damaged, you may have much bigger worries, involving a very large 'bang', and a lot of radiation. Most thriller-movie EMP generators are highly exaggerated. It is possible to make small devices that might take out a part of a building, but without an explosive driver, big EMPs are hard to make.
 
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