Comment Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score 1) 292
(big grin) We've worked for them as consultants. I've been to both "-works". We're a small defense contracting firm with pretty good clearances, our own SCIF and an eclectic set of abilities. The guys we work for the most in the military call us "hired gun trouble shooters" meaning we do a lot of "adversarial systems integration", which is what happens when the finger pointing stalls out and you have to bring in someone to sort it out. We do straight engineering contracts too. Hell, as far as that goes, we do commercial stuff to fill in when we don't have a big backlog. But mostly mil or mil related.
Laser energetics, eh? We got to do some minor stuff on THEL. I got to see them fire it. Ho-oly crap. They won't let me have one, I'm sort of disappointed.
Again, just a crapload of what they're doing isn't precisely classified, well in a sense that's not true. That they're doing it, or trying, is, but what it is they're doing isn't, exactly. If that makes sense. You can find a lot of data about it if you look in the right places. Enough that you see a press release with an interview by the Dark Prince of atmospheric plasma processes, with dates sort of spooged into the interview like "Well, if we had the ability to direct 2GW ERP, we think 2GW would do it, then we could do x and y, if we had that ability by [date] then we could complete the initial modeling and experimentation in doing [function] by [date]". And you say to yourself, self, I wonder when the upgrades will happen at Gakona, I bet they are going for 4GW just to have the usual 2x margin, and I bet it's going to happen to meet that timeline, and lo! there it is. Like clockwork.
Well, it's also true that when the satellite system specs and funding hit, it's sort of hard to hide what project group they're for. I mean, you can waffle all you'd like, but there's only one thing that set of specs is for, no matter what verbal crap you wrap around it as subterfuge. It's so much fun to tease the security guys too. "Oh, so they're going ahead with [project]? When are the array upgrades going to start?"
Anyways, you shouldn't have any problems finding the pubs where you're at. I did find a Helliwell that's open source and is actually one of the major papers on the subject. Here are a handful of cites:
Journal of Geophysical Research:
Abel and Thorne: Electron Scattering Loss in the Earth's Inner Magnetosphere: 1. Dominant Physical Processes: 103, 2385, 1998
Abel and Thorne: Electron Scattering Loss in the Earth's Inner Magnetosphere: Sensitivity to Model Parameters: 103, 2397, 1998
Inan, Bell, Bortnik and Albert: Controlled Precipitation of Radiation Belt Electrons: 108, 1186, 2003 (a good article)
Reviews of Geophysics:
VLF Wave Stimulation Experiments in the Magnetosphere from Siple Station, Antartica: 26, 551, 1988
Laser energetics, eh? We got to do some minor stuff on THEL. I got to see them fire it. Ho-oly crap. They won't let me have one, I'm sort of disappointed.
Again, just a crapload of what they're doing isn't precisely classified, well in a sense that's not true. That they're doing it, or trying, is, but what it is they're doing isn't, exactly. If that makes sense. You can find a lot of data about it if you look in the right places. Enough that you see a press release with an interview by the Dark Prince of atmospheric plasma processes, with dates sort of spooged into the interview like "Well, if we had the ability to direct 2GW ERP, we think 2GW would do it, then we could do x and y, if we had that ability by [date] then we could complete the initial modeling and experimentation in doing [function] by [date]". And you say to yourself, self, I wonder when the upgrades will happen at Gakona, I bet they are going for 4GW just to have the usual 2x margin, and I bet it's going to happen to meet that timeline, and lo! there it is. Like clockwork.
Well, it's also true that when the satellite system specs and funding hit, it's sort of hard to hide what project group they're for. I mean, you can waffle all you'd like, but there's only one thing that set of specs is for, no matter what verbal crap you wrap around it as subterfuge. It's so much fun to tease the security guys too. "Oh, so they're going ahead with [project]? When are the array upgrades going to start?"
Anyways, you shouldn't have any problems finding the pubs where you're at. I did find a Helliwell that's open source and is actually one of the major papers on the subject. Here are a handful of cites:
Journal of Geophysical Research:
Abel and Thorne: Electron Scattering Loss in the Earth's Inner Magnetosphere: 1. Dominant Physical Processes: 103, 2385, 1998
Abel and Thorne: Electron Scattering Loss in the Earth's Inner Magnetosphere: Sensitivity to Model Parameters: 103, 2397, 1998
Inan, Bell, Bortnik and Albert: Controlled Precipitation of Radiation Belt Electrons: 108, 1186, 2003 (a good article)
Reviews of Geophysics:
VLF Wave Stimulation Experiments in the Magnetosphere from Siple Station, Antartica: 26, 551, 1988
