Value chain · CLM-1278
In plain terms
A 2026 expert commentary points out that the upper atmosphere would scatter a small share of a power beam, as it does a research radar's signal, but far more strongly, so it needs checking against Wi-Fi limits. Rocket tests that made the beam produce other radio signals measured them only close by, so how far those signals could travel is unknown.
The claim as recorded
A 2026 commentary in Space Weather states that an SBSP microwave beam will be incoherently scattered by ionospheric electrons, as scientific radars are, "but with a power orders of magnitude greater than used in scientific radars", and calls for that scattered power to be compared with the regulated power levels of services sharing the frequencies, such as Wi-Fi. It also notes that in the sounding-rocket experiments in which GHz microwaves stimulated MHz radio emissions, "these emissions were observed by receivers near to the microwave emitter", so it is not known whether such emissions from a power beam could reach distant MHz radio systems.
Evidence behind this: T2: a peer-reviewed commentary; the author's reading of the literature and view, with no data.
Scope and limits
A commentary with no calculation: "orders of magnitude" is not quantified, and no scattered power density at the ground is given for any design. The rocket-emission point is an absence in the experiments the commentary cites, not a finding that emissions do or do not propagate. Interference with Wi-Fi is raised as a check to be made, not shown.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF p.3, text layer: the two quotations; the same page names the Debye length as "around 1 mm" and the scattered signal as confined to "a few MHz at most" around the carrier, and cites the rocket experiments to a 1988 paper and the theory to a 2005 paper.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-009 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1278
CLM-1278, Energy Aperture, as of 2026-08.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-588
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