Value chain · CLM-0102
In plain terms
A 1979 field test found no heating effect on the two navigation systems tested, but did find cross-modulation on time-signal stations and on one AM radio station.
The claim as recorded
In the 1979 Platteville ionospheric heating trials the OMEGA and LORAN-C navigation circuits showed no significant amplitude or phase change attributable to heating, while cross-modulation was detected on WWVB at 60 kHz, WWV at 2.5 and 5.0 MHz and a civil AM station at 1410 kHz, with six of nine tested paths showing none.
Scope and limits
A ground-based heater at HF, not a microwave power beam, so the transfer to an SBSP case is by argument and not direct. No modulation depth was reported for the positive detections, so the effect is established as present but not quantified. The later fate of the tested systems (shutdown of OMEGA and LORAN-C, the positive circuits still on air) is not in this 1980 source and no source for it is held, so it is not claimed here.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
Table 4 gives OMEGA ON/OFF phase differences typically under 1 microsecond, within the stated error bars. Table 5 gives a largest LORAN-C ON/OFF gap of about 0.3 microseconds against spreads of 0.06 to 0.28. Table 6 (PDF p54, printed p39) records the cross-modulation detections, confirmed by direct image inspection: nine rows, three cross-modulation (KCOL 1410 kHz, WWVB 60 kHz spectrum, WWV 2.5 and 5.0 MHz) and six negative. Null result, PDF p56: "No changes in system performance were noted that could be associated with ionospheric-heating induced disturbances." No modulation-depth percentage is given for the positive results.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-009 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0102
CLM-0102, Energy Aperture, as of 1980.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-110
- CLM-0103Solar flares during the same campaign disturbed the same navigation signals far more than any effect that could be put down to the heater...CLM-0137In four major space solar power studies from 1978 to 2007, none put a number on how much of the beam's energy would be lost if the beam...CLM-0139Real measurements at the Arecibo Observatory in 1980, in the same physical regime relevant to space solar power beams, found electron...CLM-0163On the exact same navigation-radio circuits used to test simulated space-solar-power heating of the upper atmosphere, a single ordinary...CLM-1378The 1981 report found online is by the same author about the same heating experiments, but it is not the 1979 memo the 1980 government...CLM-1461A 1981 computer model predicted that a space solar power beam would make electrons in the lower ionosphere two to three times hotter and...