Every time the sun burps another ginormous coronal mass ejection, the media issue warnings that the resulting EM surge could interfere with electronics on Earth and possibly damage very sensitive electronic devices. The specter of an actual EMP attack by a rogue nation would cause far more widespread damage, of course.
Let’s say I keep a SSD with my precious data stored on it in a tiny steel trash can next to my desk, with the lid in place, nice and snug. Now, what if I have drilled a a teeny, tiny hole into the bottom of the trash can for the power/data cable? Would this hole likely fatally compromise the EM protection? Is there some way to run a cable inside my urban Faraday shield in a way that doesn’t compromise its integrity?
If a single trash can doesn’t afford sufficient protection, should I consider a series of “nesting” Faraday-Matryoshka trash cans, from large to small?
Is there any evidence of CMEs ever causing noteworthy damage to electronics on Earth?
March 1989 Geomagnetic Storm - Biggest effect was a 9 hour power outage in Quebec, but it also interfered with radio, TV, and some navigation communications.
Then there’s the infamous Carrington Event - that one set telegraph wires on fire and shocked telegraph operators. Auroras were seen as far south as Cuba.
Maybe… maybe it would work… but it’s more than just plonking your SSD card into an oversized tin can.
You need to seal any cracks or holes in the “trash can”. Then you need to insulated your electronic gizmo from the metal sides of the can, very thoroughly. Then you need to put the lid on and seal that shut.
Yes. Power lines/cables would give the electric currents generated by these storms, which are what damage electronics, entry into your improvised Faraday cage. A tiny hole itself may or may not compromise the set up, an electrically conductive cable running from outside to inside definitely would.
Not if you’re running a power/data cord into the set up, no, that won’t work. Nesting Faraday trash cans that are actually sealed would.
You probably do have a Faraday cage in your kitchen - microwave ovens are essentially Faraday cages that keep the microwaves inside the metal container. If you’re desperate and need to protect your electronics in a hurry throw them in a microwave oven but of course don’t turn it on. In fact, unplug it just to be safe. Won’t guarantee it would protect your SSD card from everything but it will provide some level of protection.
There are numerous videos on YouTube giving a how-to DIY on home made Faraday cages. Metal trash cans (of various sizes) are a common starting point. Also, there seems to be a lot of steel ammo cans featured. Make of that what you will.
For most household objects, like computers, wouldn’t just unplugging them from the power outlet or using a surge-protector power cord protect them from power surges from solar storms? I thought it was only apocalyptic solar events that could directly harm electronics, and if it’s gotten to that point maybe you have much bigger things to worry about, such as whether your brain or organs are affected directly by the radiation.
The dimensions of your typical computer are too small to be affected by a CME or EMP.
However, as soon as you put a cable on them, they become huge, so putting the device inside a cage isn’t going to work.
If you know an event is coming, just unplug everything.
Yes, for most solar storms - which are actually fairly common - it’s no big deal. Unplugging is even better than a surge-protector, but both are useful. The first pulse of this weekend’s solar weather hit about mid-day in Central North America, don’t know about you but my computer at work didn’t seem to notice and my cell phone kept working.
Could this storm cause damage to household electronics? Yes, in theory. So can a nearby lightning strike during a thunderstorm. Not terribly likely. More likely it will mess with broadcast TV and radio, but not to the point of shutting it down.
This storm is significant, but it should be significantly less than the 1989 event, and nowhere near the Carrington event which probably would cause problems.
Yes, basically if you actually want to insulate your electronics from a mega-major event like that you won’t be able to use them and protect them at the same time.
There are a lot more devices etc. that might be sensitive to such storms / EMPs now, than there were 35 years ago, which is why it’s such a frightening spectre.
I don’t know how big a risk such an event truly would be, and hopefully won’t find out!
Well, if the cage is big enough you can go in it – you could use a battery to power an inverter (or just bring your laptop in the cage). Internet would be tricky – maybe an optical link to the outside world?
For extra protection, place your Faraday cage deep underground – maybe a salt mine they use for neutrino experiments?
For $20,000 you can buy a fully shielded room. If you have a background in construction and a degree in electrical engineering, you could probably build one for less than $1,000 in materials.
This. I used to work in one of these, tuning radios for foreign customers, radios which did not comply with our local standards.
The first cage I worked in was really rough looking, a frame of 2x4’s with a double layer of soldered copper window screening, one layer on the inside and one on the outside. You could see through it no problem. But if we took a radio inside and closed the door, the music would fade to silence.
The door was double-hinged and also had double layers of copper screening. It had rows of flexible tabs around the outside edges, so that when it was closed, the tabs contacted the screening on the rest of the cage.
There was an elaborate filter box that admitted power to the
interior of the cage.
The cage was quite small, just enough room for one person to sit at a desk.
For smaller objects, these folks probably have what you want, and usually cheaper. I realize their marketing is to a somewhat different group, but it doesn’t matter to me if the products are good. When searching for Faraday containers for key fobs, I tried 7 different brands, and theirs was one of two that worked well.
A long time ago I built a circuit that needed to be shielded very well. A coworker suggested a one gallon paint can, and that’s what I used. It didn’t look nice, but it worked, and was very economical.
I was thinking of one of those cookie tins, like the ones that Danish butter cookies come in. Bonus; first you need to eat the cookies to make space for whatever you need to protect.
You mean how hot it is. The geothermal gradient will be noticable at 1500 feet deep. Depending on the mine’s exact location, the temperature will probably be at least 90 F or possible much higher.
I often wonder if we are exaggerating the potential destructive power of solar flares or nuclear EMP’s? Yes, cross-country wires, or even the neighbourhood power and phone distribution, are cables on the order of hundreds of feet to hundreds of miles (and all interconnected) that can pick up induced current. But would the laptop or SSD sitting in a drawer actually get enough of a pulse to damage itself? How strong would it need to be? How about with the 3-foot cable attached but not plugged in? To what extent does a physical power switch actually protect a device from line surges?
(And there’s an obvious difference between a singl massive nuclear pulse and a solar flow of charged particles that can go on for an hour or more…)
Jerry Pournelle in Byte Magazine once described a neighbourhood incident where someone crashed into a pwer pole nearby, dropping the 40,000V feed onto the regular power lines. Appliances for blocks around fried, his light bulbs exploded, and so on… At the time he was evaluating UPS units, and one of these - and the computers attached - survived unscathed. A good recommendation for its surge suppressor function.
In addition to the Carrington Event and the 1989 Geomagnetic Storm there was also Starfish Prime that provided empirical data on nuclear EMP effects. It caused damage in Hawaii, 900 miles away from the test site.
So… the potential is pretty large, but none of the above events are typical from year to year. There are a lot of people out there in the media would like to scare people to get them to watch/read/listen because that’s how they make their money.
My thought is that those displayed effects on very long wires - the Carrington event affected mainly telegraph wires, already stretching hundreds of miles. Similarly, the nuclear explostion that affected hawaii was mostly hurting those items attached to long wires - streetlights, a microwave link. (Plus disrupting radio communications). There’s not indication that any of the electronic equipment on nearby naval vessels was badly impacted. (By 1962 electronics would be moderately advanced Transistor radios were a thing).
Another point would be that the solar flares would occur over time, building and retreating pulses. These would likely trip most of the longer-distance electrical grid. Presumably, even if local power did not trip, the loss of remote supply would be a problem. We would experience a few days of erractic or no power, and time as systems reboot.
The question is, what would an EMP do to odern IC’s?
I also have to wonder how badly a faraday cage nees to be complete. How much EMP power would leak through, for example, a small hole in a steel cage? Then that small amount of power has to spread out.to affect all the contents to cause equipment failure.
Of course, nuclear EMP would be more of a momentary event that the sustained power of a solar flare, but theoretically much stronger.