EMP Reference Library

This resources page serves as a place for me to share what I can from my EMP research over the years. This page contains links to all the public and/or copyright-free documents I have collected over the last 20 years or so of EMP research. These include the Starfish Prime and Teak high-altitude test reports, the Air Force and Army EMP interaction and protection manuals, the MIL-STD hardening standards, and the full EMP Commission record. I’ll also note that these are the primary-source documents behind the EMP threat page and the EMP field-strength simulator.

They span from 1940s Los Alamos shock-physics and pulsed-power research through to the 2022 DHS shielding best-practices report. Grouped by decade, newest first. Every document is a PDF hosted on our own servers — nothing here phones home to a third party.

2020s

• 2022 — DHS Electromagnetic Pulse Shielding Mitigations Best Practices for Protection of Mission Critical Equipment
• 2020 — DHS - EMP Program Status Report

2010s

• 2019 — DHS - EMP Protection and Resilience Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure and Equipment
• 2018 — DHS - Strategy for Protecting and Preparing the Homeland Against Threats of EMP and GMD
• 2017 — EMP Commission Chairmans Report
• 2017 — EMP Commission Electric Reliability Standards for Solar Geomagnetic Disturbances
• 2017 — EMP Commission Executive Report on Assessing the Threat from EMP
• 2017 — EMP Commission Life Without Electricity
• 2017 — EMP Commission Nuclear EMP Attack Scenarios and Combined Arms Cyber Warfare
• 2017 — EMP Commission Recommended E3 Waveform for Critical Infrastructures
• 2017 — EMP Commission Risk Based National Infrastructure Protection Priorities for EMP and Solar Storms
• 2017 — US House Homeland Security Committee Testimony of Peter Vincent Pry North Korea Nuclear EMP Attack
• 2015 — DoD MIL STD 461G
• 2015 — NSTC National Science and Technology Council
• 2011 — Army Electromagnetic Pulse A Catastrophic Threat To The Homeland

2000s

• 2008 — EMP Commission High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and High Power Microwave (HPM) Devices Threat Assessm
• 2008 — EMP Commission Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (
• 2008 — US House Armed Services Committee Hearing The Threat Posed by Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
• 2007 — Army - TM-5-690 Chapter 5
• 2005 — Air Force - EMP Threats in 2010
• 2004 — Army - Nuclear High Altitude EMP Implications for Homeland Security
• 2004 — CRS Report - High Altitude EMP Assessment
• 2004 — EMP Commission Opening Statement of Chairman Hunter
• 2004 — EMP Commission Opening Statement of Dr. Lowell Wood
• 2004 — EMP Commission Report Volume 1 Executive Report
• 2003 — Navy - Ultrashort Laser Pulses And Electromagnetic Pulse Generation In Air And On Dielectric Surfaces
• 2003 — Sandia - RadiativeReactions
• 2002 — Army - UTILITY SYSTEMS DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR C3I FACILITIES
• 2000 — DoD MIL-STD-188-125A - High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) Protection for Ground Based Faciliites
• 2000 — Los Alamos - PBX 9501 high explosive violent reaction

1990s

• 1998 — Los Alamos - Plane impact response of PBX 9501 and its components below 2 GPa
• 1998 — Los Alamos - Sensitivity of once shocked weathered high explosives
• 1998 — Los Alamos - W 76 PBX 9501 cylinder tests
• 1997 — Army Dept of the Army Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning of Hardened Installations
• 1997 — Los Alamos - Conceptual Design for High Mass Imploding Liner Experiments
• 1996 — Army - Dept of the Army Facilities Engineering Electical Interior Facilities
• 1996 — Los Alamos - Development of Imploding Liners with Kinetic Energies 100 MJ and Their Applications
• 1996 — Los Alamos - Lab to Lab Scientific Collaborations Between Los Alamos and Arzamas 16 Using Explosive Drive
• 1996 — Los Alamos - Optimizing Liner Implosions for High Energy Density Physics Experiments
• 1996 — Los Alamos - Procyon High Explosive Pulsed Power Experiments
• 1996 — Los Alamos - Procyon High Explosive Pulsed Power Experiments (2)
• 1996 — Los Alamos - Results of Russian US High Performance DEMG Experiments
• 1996 — Navy - HAARP High Power Experiments and Observations of Ionospheric Interactions
• 1995 — Los Alamos - MC 1 Generator Performance with Higher Energy Explosives
• 1994 — Los Alamos - Determination of the Nuclear Induced Electical Conductivity in a Nuclear Driven MHD Device
• 1994 — Los Alamos - EMP from a Chemical Explosion Originating in a Tunnel
• 1994 — Los Alamos - Generation of Ultra High Magnetic Fields for AGEX
• 1994 — Los Alamos - Loads for Pulsed Power Cylindrical Implosion Experiments
• 1994 — Los Alamos - The Los Alamos Arzamas 16 high magnetic field shot series Ancho Canyon site December 1993
• 1993 — Air Force - High Power Radio Phase 2 Study
• 1993 — Los Alamos - EMP From Chemical Explosions
• 1993 — Los Alamos - MC 1 Generator Performance with Higher Energy Explosives
• 1993 — Los Alamos - Review of the Procyon Explosive Pulsed Power System
• 1992 — Navy - The electromagnetic pulse environment and its influence on tactical electronic and communications equipmen
• 1990 — Army - EP 1110 3 2 1990 Electronics Pulse (EMP) and Tempest Protection for Facilities
• 1990 — Los Alamos Composite Linear Design to Maximize the Shock Pressure Beyond Megabars

1980s

• 1989 — Los Alamos - Design of a Spheromak Compressor Driven by High Explosives
• 1989 — Los Alamos - Design of an Explosive Pulsed Power System for Driving 16 MA Plasma Flow Switch Experiments
• 1989 — Los Alamos - Disk Generator With Nearly Shockless Accelerated Driver Plates
• 1987 — Los Alamos - Characterization of a Simple Explosively Driven Particle Acceleration
• 1986 — Los Alamos - Experiments with Multi Megampere Explosively Formed Fuses in Cylindrical Geometry
• 1986 — Los Alamos - Firing Complex for Explosive Pulsed Power
• 1986 — Los Alamos - Modeling of High Explosive Driven Plasma Compression Opening Switches
• 1986 — Los Alamos - Plasma Focus Experiments Powered by Explosive Generators
• 1986 — Los Alamos - Transformers for Explosive Pulsed Power Coupling to Various Loads
• 1985 — Los Alamos - Radial Implosion Acceleration
• 1985 — Los Alamos - Tests of an Explosive Driven Coaxial Generator
• 1984 — Los Alamos - Castle and Teapot ELF Em Signals Alber Loop Data
• 1984 — Los Alamos - Compton Scattering of Photons from Electrons in Thermal Motion
• 1983 — Los Alamos - A Circuit Model for the Explosive Driven Plate Generator
• 1980 — Air Force - EMP Interaction Manual

1970s

• 1979 — Los Alamos - Feasibility of an Impulsively Driven Gamma Ray Laser
• 1979 — Los Alamos - Rail Gun Powered by an Integral Explosive Generator
• 1977 — Los Alamos - Pulsed Electrical Power from Explosives
• 1976 — Air Force - Electromagnetic Pulse Analysis of Small Power Systems
• 1975 — Air Force - A Calculation Model for High Altitude EMP
• 1975 — NTIS - Electromagnetic Pulse Handbook for Electric Power Systems
• 1974 — NTIS - EMP Isolation Provided by Large Faraday Shielded Transformers
• 1973 — Los Alamos - Electromagnetic pulse from an underground nuclear explosion
• 1972 — Army Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse Simulation by Dipole Antenna Array Techniques
• 1972 — Los Alamos - Megagauss Field Applications
• 1972 — NASA - A Model of the Starfish Flux in the Inner Radiation Zone
• 1970 — Los Alamos - Early Radio Flash From a Low Altitude Air Burst
• 1970 — Navy - Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse Protective Measures Applied To A Typical Communications Shelter

1960s

• 1965 — NBS Attenuation of the Ground Wave of a Low Frequency Electromagnetic Pulse
• 1963 — Los Alamos - Fast Electromagnetic Signals Produced by Nuclear Explosions in the Troposphere
• 1962 — Los Alamos - A Quick Look at the Technical Results of Starfish Prime
• 1961 — Los Alamos - Artificial Aurora and Upper Atmospheric Shock Produced by Teak

1950s

• 1953 — Los Alamos - Free Surface Acceleration by Shocks of Moderate Strength
• 1953 — Los Alamos - Tables of the Compton Effect Cross Sections and Energies
• 1952 — Los Alamos - Theoretical equation of state for detonation products of solid explosive

1940s

• 1945 — Los Alamos - 100 Ton Test Permanent Earth Movement Earth and Air Shocks
• 1945 — Los Alamos - The Motion of Earth Thrown from Small Crates by Explosive Charges
• 1943 — Los Alamos - The collapse of hollow steel cylinders by high explosives