Which, you know, kinda makes me giggle a little. We, the US, attacked space with a hydrogen bomb. The scientific world wasn't actually sure what effects this would have and we're like, "Hold my beer and watch this."
And then, we bombed space. That might actually be one of the most American things we've ever done.
"F*ck you, space! Being all spacey and stuff!" (At least that's what it sounds like in my imagination.)
"During the Trinity test, Enrico Fermi recalled Teller's idea of igniting the atmosphere. In an attempt to relieve some tension, he started taking bets on whether the test would destroy the world, or merely glass the State of New Mexico."
from: https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-scientists-risked-destroyi...
And it still doesn't really make a difference, on the grand scale of things.
Space would probably just go "That's cute" ..if it even noticed it.
Space is used to vastly more stronger forces – the kinds that create planets and destroy stars. Heck, there's probably more energy being flung around in Jupiter's storms every day if not every hour, than we could ever produce on Earth.
We could literally blow our planet apart (though even that may be nigh impossible) and it still wouldn't make much of a difference to our own solar system, let alone the galaxy around it.
I think we would be a happier species if we accepted our insignificance and tried to make the best of our infinitesimal corner in time and space, rather than having delusions of grandeur, trying to one-up and cower fellow insignificants with insignificant acts..
"When the bomb burst, people told of blackouts and strange electrical malfunctions, like garage doors opening and closing on their own."
The Soviet tests are interesting. They actually managed to burn down an entire electrical power station with the EMP from one of their bombs.
Edit: looking into it more, the destruction of the power station is uncertain. There was definitely a fire at the Karaganda power station, but there's only one vague reference to it being destroyed as a result. Interesting how a question like "did this entire power station burn down in the 1960s?" can remain unanswered today.
Establishing the destruction of that power station today would be extremely difficult, short of American spy photos, I'd wager.
I believe the reason for using air rather than fluid is heat dissipation. Normal fluid brakes would boil if subject to the heat and the fluid would break down. When air brakes get hot, the pressure just goes up.
You can EMP blast whole continents with it. It is thought that in case of an all our nuclear attack at high up detonation like that would happen early one to disable as many electronics and communication facilities of the enemy.
Then of course countries have been working on EMP hardening military tech.
For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse says that:
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if the Starfish Prime warhead had been detonated over the northern continental United States, the magnitude of the EMP would have been much larger (22 to 30 kV/m) because of the greater strength of the Earth's magnetic field over the United States,
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Then the Soviets also "played" around with that too:
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The monitored telephone line was divided into sub-lines of 40 to 80 kilometres (25 to 50 mi) in length, separated by repeaters. Each sub-line was protected by fuses and by gas-filled overvoltage protectors. The EMP from the 22 October (K-3) nuclear test (also known as Test 184) blew all of the fuses and fired all of the overvoltage protectors in all of the sub-lines.[15]
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