I have been assured by a number of knowledgeable FReepers that there is no such thing as EMP or CME its all just a gimmick to raise money for studies.
One told me if there was such a thing as EMP because the lightening is the same thing and it doesn’t knock all the power out.
They’re in some kind of stupid denial.
Thanks for all you do, Kartographer.
I think the best thing we could do it break up our power grid in to much smaller pieces. It wouldn’t prevent them from going down but it would be much easier getting things back up and running.
Lightning is similar but not the same in critical ways, the primary one being the frequency spectrum. Lightning is something like 100 KHz to 1 MHz, while EMP is something like 100 MHz. This means that shorter wires can act as antennas and that voltage can be induced inside shield with smaller holes.
One example that use is that we have thousands of broadcast, 2-way and cell towers in the US. A few get direct lightning strikes each day. Some have equipment failure as a result. A lot do not.