Value chain · CLM-0139
In plain terms
Real measurements at the Arecibo Observatory in 1980, in the same physical regime relevant to space solar power beams, found electron density varying by about 2%, occasionally up to 4%, inside large patches of disturbance that formed during high-power radio heating; the authors could not say whether the heating caused them.
The claim as recorded
DOE-ER-10003-T2 (1980) reports measured electron density variations within large-scale irregularities at Arecibo (March 1980, underdense heating, the SPS-relevant regime) typically of the order of 2%, with some observations showing variations as large as 4%.
Scope and limits
A measurement of electron density variation (delta-N/N) within large-scale (kilometre-size) night-time F-region irregularities, not of short-scale striations, which the same section says were not detected (PDF p89), and not a beam-POWER-LOSS measurement; the source adds "It is not known if the observed irregularities resulted directly from HF wave self-focusing, or if they were a HF-triggered natural spread-F condition" (PDF p91); no source found converts this into a fraction of SPS beam power scattered (see CLM-0137). Should not be read as a loss percentage.
What it assumes
The Arecibo underdense-heating test conditions are representative of the density-fluctuation regime an actual SPS beam would produce; not itself demonstrated in the source.
Where it comes from
DOE-ER-10003-T2 (1980), Section 7.2, p.91: "Electron density variations as large as 2 percent were observed within the irregularities... Typical density variations are of the order of 2 percent, with some observations showing changes as large as 4 percent."
Basis: percentage electron-density variation, underdense heating regime, Arecibo
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-001 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0139
CLM-0139, Energy Aperture, as of 1980 (measurement: March 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-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-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...