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OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

SPS ionosphere/microwave beam interactions: Arecibo experimental studies

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6519445· OSTI ID:6519445
The purpose of this program is to determine the environmental impacts associated with the operation of the proposed SPS microwave power transmission system. It is expected that thermal effects will provide the dominant force driving the nonlinear ionosphere/microwave beam interactions. Collisional damping of radio waves, producing ohmic heating of the ionospheric plasma, depends inversely on the square of the radio wave frequency. Therefore, equivalent heating and equivalent thermal forces can be generated at lower radiated power densities by using lower radio wave frequencies. This principle is fundamental to a large part of the experimental program. An understanding of the physics of the specific interactions excited by the SPS microwave beam is also an important part of the assessment program. This program is designed to determine instability thresholds, the growth rates and spatial extent of the resultant ionospheric disturbances, and the frequency and power dependences of the interactions. How these interactions are affected by variations in the natural ionospheric conditions, how different instabilities occurring simultaneously may affect each other, and how distinct microwave beams might mutually interact are studied. Status of the program is described. (WHK)
Research Organization:
Los Alamos Scientific Lab., NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AI01-80ER10160
OSTI ID:
6519445
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-80-3095
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140400* -- Solar Energy-- Environmental Aspects
200300 -- Electric Power Engineering-- Power Transmission & Distribution-- (-1989)
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
500100 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Basic Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
F REGION
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
INSTABILITY
IONOSPHERE
MICROWAVE POWER TRANSMISSION
MICROWAVE RADIATION
ORBITAL SOLAR POWER PLANTS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA INSTABILITY
POWER PLANTS
POWER TRANSMISSION
RADIATIONS
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
STRIATIONS