Value chain · CLM-0061
In plain terms
The experiments were done. They found heating two or three times stronger than normal, not the tenfold effect predicted, no irregularities forming, and effects far smaller than a solar flare produces naturally.
The claim as recorded
NASA RP-1076 records that tests at Arecibo and Platteville showed no evidence to support 23 mW/cm2 as an upper limit, that measured electron temperature increases from underdense heating were a factor of two or three rather than the order of magnitude predicted in the early analyses, that no indications of irregularities forming in the lower ionosphere during underdense heating were seen, and that effects produced by simulated SPS heating are many times less than natural ionospheric disturbances introduced by solar flares.
Scope and limits
These were HF simulations scaled to the SPS frequency, not direct GHz-frequency tests. The scaling law used is itself the subject of CLM-0062, so the transfer to 2.45 GHz depends on an exponent that the same document says was under revision.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
Verbatim, SRC-107: "The results of the tests performed to date at Arecibo and Platteville show no evidence to support 23 mW/cm2 as an upper limit. The electron temperature increases due to underdense heating are a factor of two or three, rather than the order of magnitude predicted in the early analyses (ref. 15)." And: "there are no indications of irregularities being formed in the lower ionosphere during underdense heating". And: "Effects produced by simulated SPS heating are many times less than natural ionospheric disturbances as introduced by solar flares".
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-009 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0061
CLM-0061, Energy Aperture, as of 1981.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-107
- CLM-0033 (low confidence)Apart from a 1981 NASA review that found no evidence for the number and suggested a higher one, nobody was found to have revisited it, and...CLM-0060In 1981 a NASA review panel said the 230 watts per square metre figure rested on an obsolete theory with no experimental support, and made...CLM-0062By 1981 the theory was being revised to a steeper frequency dependence, which would raise the permitted power density.CLM-0063NASA suggested in 1981 that 550 to 600 watts per square metre might be reasonable, roughly two and a half times the figure still in use...CLM-0101The 1978 contract required the researchers to report fixes if ionospheric disturbance pushed the pilot-beam phase error past 2 to 3...CLM-0160A 1978-81 NASA design study calculated that simply pointing the satellite's structure accurately enough, without any electronic correction...CLM-0420NASA's 1981 report says the experiments found nothing supporting the 23 milliwatt limit, that the measured heating was two or three times...CLM-0901Each antenna must hold its position along the line to the receiver within about three millimetres for a tenth of a decibel. The whole 1970s...More on the source page.