Value chain · CLM-1011
In plain terms
In 1980 the programme used two different rules to translate its low-frequency experiments to the real beam, one for heating and one for the instability. It said the rules were believed sound, and in the same document that the instability rule had never been tested.
The claim as recorded
The DOE 1980 summary carries two distinct frequency-scaling laws for ground-based simulation of the SPS beam - ohmic heating as 1/f^2 and the thermal self-focusing threshold as 1/f^3, the latter written as P_SPS/f_SPS^3 = P_HF/f_HF^3 - states that HF results "must be extrapolated over a frequency range of nearly 1000", judges on p.84 that "the current understanding ... indicates that the ohmic heating (1/f2) and thermal self-focusing instability (1/f3) scaling laws are valid", and then states on pp.89 and 91 that "the 1/f3 scaling law is yet to be validated" and that studies are needed "to validate the 1/f3 scaling law".
Evidence behind this: T3-programme summary assessment stating its own scaling laws and their validation status.
Scope and limits
A summary volume citing its detailed ionospheric volume (ref. 2, "in press" in 1980), held as SRC-110 (DOE/ER-10003-T2) and not re-read for this row. The exponents are stated, not derived, here.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
p.94 / 84, render read: Eq. 2 "P_SPS / f_SPS^3 = P_HF / f_HF^3"; "The results obtained by heating the ionosphere with high-frequency waves must be extrapolated over a frequency range of nearly 1000 to arrive at the SPS operational frequency ... the current understanding of the processes that are anticipated to occur in the SPS environment indicates that the ohmic heating (1/f2) and thermal self-focusing instability (1/f3) scaling laws are valid." p.99 / 89: "The 1/f3 scaling law is yet to be validated". p.101 / 91: "Current theory predicts the thermal self-focusing threshold to be proportional to the cube of the frequency ... Studies ... are needed to establish the threshold for the onset of ionospheric irregularities generated by underdense thermal self-focusing instabilities and to validate the 1/f3 scaling law."
Basis: dimensionless scaling exponents
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-009 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1011
CLM-1011, Energy Aperture, as of 1980-08.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-086
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- Also from SRC-529
- CLM-1005The 1980 assessment explains where the 10 milliwatt limit came from: a heating threshold of 100 divided by a safety factor of ten. It also...CLM-1006In 1980, by the US assessment's figures, the Soviet limit for the general public was two thousand times lower than the American 10...CLM-1007The 1980 assessment worked out that a full American deployment would raise the microwave background everywhere in the country to about...CLM-1008The 1980 documents give the beam's strength at the satellite, on failure, and above and below the receiving panels. The summary and the...CLM-1009The 1980 programme tested bees because of pollination. Early results showed no effect at the beam's strength, and one preliminary report...CLM-1010In the US Department of Energy's 1980 assessments the only bird numbers were from quail eggs at a fifth of the beam's peak, which hatched...CLM-1012In the DOE's 1980 summary the Platteville heating tests showed no effect on the navigation and broadcast radio it listed at the beam's...CLM-1013By 1980 the programme had made the upper ionosphere ripple with a heater running at what it reckoned was four to twelve times the beam's...More on the source page.