In military terminology, a nuclear warhead detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth's surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device. Effects of a HEMP device depend on a very large number of factors, including the altitude of the detonation, energy yield, gamma ray output, interactions with the Earth's magnetic field, and electromagnetic shielding of targets.
It has long been known that there are many ways to protect against nuclear EMP (or to quickly begin repairs where protection is not practical); but the United States EMP Commission determined that such protections are almost completely absent in the civilian infrastructure of the United States, and that even large sectors of the United States military services were no longer protected against EMP to the level that they were during the Cold War. The public statements of the physicists and engineers working in the EMP field tend to emphasize the importance of making electronic equipment and electrical components resistant to EMP — and of keeping adequate spare parts on hand, and in the proper location, to enable prompt repairs to be made.[22][34][47] The United States EMP Commission did not look at the civilian infrastructures of other nations.
22. Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
34. EMP Commission Critical National Infrastructures Report
47. Ross, Lenard H., Jr. and Mihelic, F. Matthew, "Healthcare Vulnerabilities to Electromagnetic Pulse," American Journal of Disaster Medicine, Vol. 3, No. 6, pp. 321–325. November/December 2008.
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