Starfish Prime was 1.4 MT. Your scenario has a warhead of significantly less yield. Don’t think the results would equal your claim.
Starfish Prime was 1.4 MT. Your scenario has a warhead of significantly less yield. Don’t think the results would equal your claim.Perhaps. It does depend upon several factors, including the size of the bomb, the altitude and the Earth's magnetic field in the affected area.
Here's part of what Wikipedia has to say:
The EMP damage of the Starfish Prime test was quickly repaired because of the ruggedness (compared to today)[9] of the electrical and electronic infrastructure of Hawaii in 1962. Realization of the potential impacts of EMP became more apparent to some scientists and engineers during the 1970s as more sensitive solid-state electronics began to come into widespread use.The relatively small magnitude of the Starfish Prime EMP in Hawaii (about 5600 volts/metre) and the relatively small amount of damage done (for example, only 1 to 3 percent of streetlights extinguished)[10] led some scientists to believe, in the early days of EMP research, that the problem might not be as significant as was later realized. Newer calculations[9] showed that if the Starfish Prime warhead had been detonated over the northern continental United States, the magnitude of the EMP would have been much larger (22 to 30 kilovolts/metre) because of the greater strength of the Earth's magnetic field over the United States, as well as the different orientation of the Earth's magnetic field at high latitudes. These new calculations, combined with the accelerating reliance on EMP-sensitive microelectronics, heightened awareness that the EMP threat could be a very significant problem.
Also from the article:
The geomagnetic storm-like E3 pulse (from the test designated as “Test 184”) even induced an electric current surge in a long underground power line that caused a fire in the power plant in the city of Karaganda.
“Starfish Prime was 1.4 MT. Your scenario has a warhead of significantly less yield. Don’t think the results would equal your claim.”
EMP yield is remarkably insensitive to warhead yield. It is a bit, but it isn’t linear.