FOREWORD The Satellite Power System (SPS) is a concept for obtaining baseload, i. e., continuous, electric power from the sun. It involves placing large arrays of photovoltaic cells in geostationary earth orbit, where they would receive continuous illumination by the sun, except for periods of as much as 40 minutes per night near the equinoxes, when the arrays would be in the earth's shadow. The power would be transmitted to the ground using microwave beams, according to the reference system concept. The scale of the reference system is very large, involving 5-GW power units in space (by comparison, a present day nuclear power reactor produces about 1 GW). One 5-GW power satellite would have a solar collector array of area 5 x 10 km and a mass of 37,000 - 50,000 metric tons in orbit; the microwave receiving antenna on the ground would cover a 10 x 13 km ellipse. The reference concept presumes that two satellites would be built each year between 2000 and 2030 to provide some 25% of total U. S. electric power needs at that time. Environmental impact studies are divided into five major tasks, namely: 1 - Health and ecological effects of microwave radiation 2 - Other effects on health and the environment 3 - Effects on the atmosphere 4 - Effects on communication systems that use the ionosphere 5 - Electromagnetic compatibility and radio frequency interference. The present study is part of Task III. The main effects considered result from space transportation operations -- in particular the injection by rocket engines of water and hydrogen between 70 km altitude and geostationary earth orbit (36,000 km radius) -- and with the injection of argon ion beams into the plasmasphere at the higher altitudes. The object of the present study is to identify atmospheric research needs, including both theory and experiment, for the evaluation of upper atmospheric environmental effects due to SPS construction and deployment. A list of participants in the workshop is given in Appendix A.
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