Protection against EMP - electro magnetic pulses

[PCBaby]

Hello to all.

I would like to know whether the experts here have a solution to protect electronic equipment from EMP events - either due to lightnings, "Carrington level" solar storms (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 e.g.) or ...you name it. 

Two aspects here : first of all, the archives on hard disks (programs, environment and data) and second of all, the equipment itself, connected or not.

As a start : does anybody know how to protect hard disks of the USB category ? Would Farraday cages do the trick  or even rolling the disks into aluminium foils?

Thanks in advance.

PCPb

[Supercharged]

The keyword is shielding. If you have to protect from the weak EMP e.g. from lightning a metal can should be enough, but if you have to protect from a very strong EMP from a very strong Solar storm or a nuclear blast, the best you can do is hide underground. There are some data backup services in switzerland which use old Reduit bunkers. But those scenarios are really unlikely.

Furthermore you have to make shure that the conection you have to non shielded components are save from surges, which can be caused by lightning or by an EMP which can be picked up by those external components.

[tszaboo]

Danish cookie tin. It serves dual purpose.

[G7PSK]

Use Valves/tubes, or military grade electronics.

[MT]

Its even royal!

[Halcyon]

If you're concerned/interested, you can sign up for various email alerts at http://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Products_and_Services/4/1

They send out notifications about precursor events etc...

[Ian.M]

Nearby lightning strikes and nuke air bursts have a lot of HF energy because they are basically pulse events.  CME triggered geomagnetic storms don't and only effectively couple into long wires.  Unfortunately, given a long enough wire e.g. the electricity or phone network, the induced voltage can be high enough to jump ordinary isolation switches or circuit breakers.

See the E3 pulse at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse

Totally disconnected IT equipment and other electronics isn't going to be bothered by an E3 pulse if its well separated from any nearby wiring.    If you were to fit whole house surge protection behind an industrial high voltage contactor wired to disconnect the supply and ground L and N on the load side when it drops out, controlled by a load side voltage sensing circuit (obviously with a momentary switch to the supply side to re-engage it) there is a very good chance that connected electronics with local surge protection on all wiring will survive an E3 event.  Incoming phone lines etc. need surge protection and also should run through a high voltage relay that grounds the house side if power is lost.  Incoming metal utility pipes need long plastic isolation breaks and the whole house needs heavy duty equipotential bonding/grounding.

The advice for sailors in lightning prone areas is to keep spares for critical electronics in a sealed metal tin - that's just about your only chance of having any working electronics after a direct or very close lightning strike.   

As electronic techs/engineers, we can do rather better, because we know the importance of full length bare metal to metal contact on all joints for a HF Faraday cage,  so could easily prep for the possibility of a post-nuclear EMP 'bugout' by stockpiling 12V HF comms equipment, solar panels,charge controllers, GPSes, together with a spare alternator and any critical electronic modules for the bugout vehicle etc. all foil wrapped over an insulating wrapper, bagged with desiccant and packed in plastic tubs in a metal 50 gallon drum sealed with conductive adhesive copper tape.   New unfilled dry charged Lead acid batteries have a shelf life up to 5 years, and if stored cool and dry can be recovered by a forming charge 20 years later, so a couple of those on the shelf + acid to fill them  to support the comms gear and bugout vehicle would be a good idea.  The bugout vehicle should ideally be a well maintained old diesel 4WD with absolutely no engine electronics.  A carburettor petrol engine with traditional Kettering ignition comes a close second.  Of course you need somewhere sensible to bug out to, and if you live in a dense urban area, you probably wont get out of town without being mobbed.

[Seekonk]

Can't explain why this happened, but I have a dry charged 6V battery I have kept since 1968.