Excessive amounts of microwave radiation can undoubtedly produce harms and injuries to a variety of subjects. Such radiation can have adverse biological effects. It is possible that such microwaves would be detrimental to the ionosphere. Aircraft and birds in flight could experience detriment, but further study is required to determine if this is factual. Through excessive temperature increases there could be injury to the general ecosystem, including possible modifications in weather patterns. It should be emphasized that these are merely suggested possibilities, although it is known that excessive exposure to humans and other animals on the ground can produce adverse biological effects. Glaser in discussing the environmental effects of the microwave beam refers to ionosphere propagation. He identifies several possible interactions of the microwave beam with the ionosphere, including displacement, phase fluctuations, dispersion, and fluxes. He states: The direct effect on high-power microwave transmission with densities of 20-30 mW/cm^ is likely to be small, since the absorption at the 3 GHz frequency remains negligible, even with an order of magnitude increase in electron temperature and density. However, power densities greater than 100 mW/cm? could produce large horizontal electron density gradients that could cause significant beam displacement and dispersion." He also stated: "Although only a small fraction of the microwave beam is absorbed, it is still significant compared to the natural thermal input to the ionosphere. For an incident flux of 20 mW/cm^, the ionosphere ranges from 10 to 40 during the day and from 40 to 160 during the night. These significant changes in ionospheric properties will most likely be local and reversible, but they will have to be evaluated, particularly for continuous operation." Further, "Given these considerations, it appears that microwave power densities above 20 mW/cm^ could result in major changes in ionospheric properties. Microwave power densities greater than 20 mW/cm^ could be employed once more data on these interactions have been obtained in experiments conducted with Earth-based as well as space-based transmitting antennas." Moreover, "The effects of changes in ionospheric electron density caused by microwave power densities of 20 mW/cm? at the SPS operating frequency will have to be investigated for possible effects on other uses of the ionosphere." Peter E. Glaser, "Solar Power Satellites," op. cit. , pp. 12-13.
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