[Waverley ARS] Propagation INTERESTING READING

[Colin Marks]

Interesting Bob.
But I don't think I'll sell my HF gear yet.......
73         Colin         VK2LV

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Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 9:37 PM
Subject: [Waverley ARS] Propagation INTERESTING READING


>
>  >
>> A newspaper article on Monday out of New Zealand reported a proposed
>> Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project that could
>> cause major worldwide disruptions to HF radio communication and GPS
>> navigation.  The ''Radiation Belt Remediation'' (RBR) system is
>> envisaged as a method for protecting low earth orbit (LEO)
>> satellites from damage caused by high altitude nuclear detonations
>> or severe solar storms.  Testing the system would use extremely high
>> intensity very low frequency (VLF) radio waves to flush particles
>> from radiation belts and dump them into the upper atmosphere.
>>
>> When I first heard of this on Monday morning, I thought it must be
>> something from a fringe web site peddling dark conspiracy theories.
>> But the newspaper reporting the news is real, and so is the team of
>> scientists from New Zealand, the UK and Finland whose study of
>> possible effects of the scheme is reported in a recent edition of
>> Annales Geophysicae.
>>
>> You can find the article here:
>>
>> http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/research/space/ag-24-2025.pdf
>>
>> A web page from the University of Otago describing the research is
>> here:
>>
>> http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/research/space/RBR_Media_release_8Aug06.htm
>>
>> I contacted the lead researcher on the team reporting the possible
>> effects of the project, Dr. Craig Rodger of the Physics Department
>> at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.  He proved very
>> cooperative, accessible and helpful, and told me RBR is a serious
>> project, ''money is starting to appear to investigate it in more
>> detail'', and ''U.S. scientists with military connections are treating
>> it seriously''.
>>
>> It is feared that testing the system could shut down worldwide HF
>> communications for several days to a week, rendering the ionosphere
>> a giant sponge for RF.
>>
>> I sent Dr. Rodger a comment from Ward Silver, N0AX, who speculated
>> ''the sheer energy needed to accomplish it would tend to rule it out
>> from the start, and I don't know where they would erect the
>> necessary antennas.''
>>
>> Dr. Rodger responded, ''This would be true, but they are hoping to
>> rely on some of the non-linear processes in space plasmas, stealing
>> the energy from the radiation belts to get the wave-amplitudes high
>> enough.  We know this is possible (in theory), as it happens
>> naturally already.  We don't know how easy it will be to get it
>> happening under our control''.
>>
>> ''Also, as for erecting the antenna, there are two plans.  One is to
>> fly VLF antenna in space.  This could be a power problem.  But for
>> ground-based systems, you probably already know that most major
>> naval powers have big VLF transmitters dotted over the globe.  (Two
>> of the US Navy transmitters radiate one megawatt).  While these are
>> designed to keep the signals mostly under the ionosphere, it shows
>> the possibility for building big powerful antenna''.
>>
>> You can read Monday's article from the New Zealand Herald, here:
>>
>> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1ObjectID=10396164
>>
>> Tad Cook, K7RA
>
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