Value chain · CLM-0137
In plain terms
In 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 sets up fine stripes of uneven density in the upper atmosphere; they mention the concern but do not measure or calculate it.
The claim as recorded
None of four SPS reference documents spanning 1978 to 2007 (1978, 1980, 2004, 2007) gives a measured or modelled figure, in either a fraction or dB, for how much of an SPS downlink beam's power scatters out of the main lobe once ionospheric self-focusing striations form; the concern is repeatedly named and never quantified.
T3 government or agency report · medium confidence · as of 1978-2007 · VER-1792 CONFIRMED 2026-10-02 (repair; was VER-910 PARTIAL 2026-09-05) · VC06
Scope and limits
A negative result - absence of a figure, not proof that the loss is negligible. Does not establish the loss IS zero, only that it has never been costed in the literature reviewed.
What it assumes
The four documents searched are representative of the field's treatment of this question; a source outside this set could in principle supply a number not found here.
Where it comes from
SRC-085 Satellite Power System (SPS) Concept Development and Evaluation Program - Reference System...
SRC-110 DOE/ER-10003-T2: Effects of Ionospheric Heating on Telecommunications, 1980
SRC-104 Ionospheric interactions with high-power microwave beams, ESA/University of Leicester review,...
SRC-100 URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite Systems (clean full text, 194 pp), 2007-06
SRC-085 Satellite Power System (SPS) Concept Development and Evaluation Program - Reference System...
SRC-110 DOE/ER-10003-T2: Effects of Ionospheric Heating on Telecommunications, 1980
SRC-104 Ionospheric interactions with high-power microwave beams, ESA/University of Leicester review,...
SRC-100 URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite Systems (clean full text, 194 pp), 2007-06
SRC-100 URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite Systems (clean full text, 194 pp), 2007-06
SRC-052 URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite (SPS) Systems (in The Radio Science Bulletin, No....
SRC-052 URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite (SPS) Systems (in The Radio Science Bulletin, No....
SRC-100 URSI White Paper on Solar Power Satellite Systems (clean full text, 194 pp), 2007-06
DOE-ER-0023 (1978), Fig.25 p.56 (official MPTS efficiency chain, no ionospheric scattering term); DOE-ER-10003-T2 (1980), p.95-96 (PDF p96: "Efforts directed toward a full application of the self-focusing instability in an underdense ionosphere need to be undertaken", a call for further work rather than a number); URSI white paper (2007), p.41: "In abnormal circumstances, significant departures might be expected when... the beam encounters scintillations in the ionosphere" - flagged, not quantified; p.169: "it is unclear how important this is for an underdense plasma."
Basis: none (fraction or dB of beam power scattered from main lobe)
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-001 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0137
CLM-0137, Energy Aperture, as of 1978-2007.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-052
- CLM-0032In 2007 the international radio science union published a white paper saying that nobody had measured this heating effect from the ground...
- Also from SRC-085
- CLM-0013The paper that modern UK studies rely on for the beam figure calls anything below 1 kilowatt per square metre safe, with 230 watts per...CLM-0020The original 1978 design set the beam at 230 watts per square metre in the middle of the receiving site, about one twenty-third of that at...CLM-0023In the 1978 reference design, two limits set the size of the transmitter and the receiving site: how much heat the transmitter can shed...CLM-0039The 1978 report set the figure to protect radio and navigation systems from a disturbed ionosphere, called the number theoretical and...CLM-0045The apparent conflict between 12 and 23 was not an error. The underlying study gave a range, and the figure adopted sits near the top of it.CLM-0101The 1978 contract required the researchers to report fixes if ionospheric disturbance pushed the pilot-beam phase error past 2 to 3...CLM-0138The original 1978 government design for beaming power down from space adds up all the expected energy losses to get 63% overall efficiency...CLM-0182When two different research teams assessed the exact same 1978 space solar power design, the older accounting method (which spreads...More on the source page.
- Also from SRC-100
- CLM-0032In 2007 the international radio science union published a white paper saying that nobody had measured this heating effect from the ground...CLM-0047Heating falls with the square of frequency. In 2007 no ground-based measurement of it was available at gigahertz frequencies, and...CLM-0048An international scientific body reviewed the proposed figures, found them ranging from 230 to 1,000 watts per square metre, and chose 300...CLM-0049The stated design intent in a 2007 URSI white paper is that the beam would be shaped to fall to 10 watts per square metre by the edge of...CLM-0067According to a 2007 international report, Japanese designs of the time chose their beam strength on cost and land grounds; the report does...CLM-0079The 1978 paper modelled both a ground facility and a satellite case, and its 500 watts per square metre figure is a power flux for a given...CLM-0083The formula is the right type but nobody has said how far it can be pushed, and at space solar power frequencies the wave is about 200...CLM-0101The 1978 contract required the researchers to report fixes if ionospheric disturbance pushed the pilot-beam phase error past 2 to 3...More on the source page.
- Also from SRC-104
- CLM-0042The 230 watts per square metre figure applies to one frequency and one design lineage. Japanese designs at a higher frequency allow up to...CLM-0057There is a formula for the instability threshold. It depends on electron density cubed, electron temperature to the fourth power, and...CLM-0059The two fields were largely the same people from the 1970s, and papers linking them were still appearing after 1991.CLM-0075When ESA revisited the question in 2004 it used the 1978 theory and did not cite the 1979-81 Platteville tests or NASA's 1981 revision of...CLM-0079The 1978 paper modelled both a ground facility and a satellite case, and its 500 watts per square metre figure is a power flux for a given...CLM-0083The formula is the right type but nobody has said how far it can be pushed, and at space solar power frequencies the wave is about 200...CLM-0108A 2004 ESA review found that during the October 2003 solar storm, just under 20 per cent of a space solar power beam would have been...CLM-0109In normal conditions the ionosphere takes essentially none of the beam. In a severe solar storm it could take a little under a fifth of it.More on the source page.
- 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-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-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...