Value chain · CLM-0103
In plain terms
Solar flares during the same campaign disturbed the same navigation signals far more than any effect that could be put down to the heater, which was too small to detect.
The claim as recorded
In the same 1979 Platteville campaign and on the same circuits, a small solar flare on 20 August 1979 produced a LORAN-C phase shift of more than 1 microsecond on one path and 0.5 microsecond on another, and two solar flares on 18 August, not described as small, shifted the OMEGA phase by more than 10 microseconds, about five times the day-to-day changes; the report concludes that such natural changes are many times greater than any effects that could be associated with the ionospheric heating.
Scope and limits
The LORAN-C comparison is against a flare the source calls small; the OMEGA comparison is against two flares the source does not characterise. The heater's own effects were undetectable (PDF p56), so the comparison is with a detection limit, not with a measured heater effect. It is not established that the relation holds against a severe G4 or G5 geomagnetic storm, and no such comparison was found.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF p56 (LORAN-C, Figure 13): "At 1731 hours a small solar flare was reported. This flare produced a phase shift of more than 1 [microsecond] in the Fallon-Brush signal and 0.5 [microsecond] in the Dana-Boulder signal." PDF p58 (OMEGA, Figure 14): "Two solar flares were reported on 18 August ... These flares produced a shift in the phase of the OMEGA signal of more than 10 [microseconds] compared to the average behavior observed on the other four days. This shift is about five times the changes in phase seen on a day-to-day basis." PDF p58 conclusion: natural changes "yield effects in propagation systems that are many times greater than any effects that could be associated with the ionospheric heating". Printed page numbers are not in the text layer.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-009 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0103
CLM-0103, Energy Aperture, as of 1980.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-110
- CLM-0102A 1979 field test found no heating effect on the two navigation systems tested, but did find cross-modulation on time-signal stations and...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...