C.6 Weather Modification as an Auxiliary Role for the SPS We consider the possible use of the Satellite Power System to modify weather and the military implications of such a capability. Certain atmospheric processes might be modified by deposition of energy from the microwave power beam. We will consider the feasibility of modifying the weather by using the SPS. In addition, we try to estimate the extent to which such an application could be employed for military benefit—from the creation of drought to the rapid clearing of fog from a runway for military aircraft engaged in interdiction and close-air support. Should weather modification prove to be feasible using the SPS, the SPS must be provided with an effective and credible safeguard against its development and deployment as a military weapon for modifying the weather. C.6.1 Feasibility To what extent can one design for SPS for modifying weather, based upon the application of the hydrodynamical equations of meteorology? The nature of the answer is formulated partly by the amount of energy involved in atmospheric processes compared with the amount available from the SPS for altering those processes. The atmosphere is continually being energized by radiant heat from the Sun. Only two-sevenths of the heat absorbed is made available to increasing the potential energy of the air; five-seventh serves to increase its internal energy. This internal energy, unstable and labile, is readily subject to modification. It is the energy in this part of the atmospheric system that the SPS must seek to release in order to modify atmospheric processes and alter the weather. Part of the available potential and internal energies will therefore be used up in creating motion. To be effective, the SPS must orchestrate its inputs in such a way as to create the right kind of motion, in the desired amounts, and at the right place and time, in order to produce specific weather changes. To better appreciate the kinetic energy magnitudes, consider just the tropospheric ring between 10° N and 80° N . For this mass of air, the averaged January surplus of kinetic energy m excess of that for July represents 7.5 x 10 , W being continuously expended during the half year from January to July, a surplus corresponding to 57 years of electrical energy production by the United States at its generating capability for the year 1978.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==