teractions leading to beam self-focusing and the development of ionospheric striations. Most of the changes in the ionosphere induced by the SPS microwave beam are believed to be restricted to an area near the beam. However, even localized changes in ionospheric structure, density, and temperature can cause serious wide-ranging telecommunication effects. The magnitude and scope of these effects depends both on the specific telecommunication system characteristics and on the nature of the ionospheric disturbances. A vigorous research program is underway to establish the thresholds for exciting nonlinear ionosphere-microwave interactions, to determine the effects of these interactions on the ionosphere, to define the scope and magnitude of associated telecommunication impacts, and to devise mitigation strategies to suppress their occurrence, if necessary. HLLV PROPELLANT EMISSIONS Depletion Chemistry’ Ionospheric depletions in electron and ion densities are predicted to occur following HLLV launches for the construction of solar power satellites (3). The injection of rocket exhaust products, primarily H2O and H2, leads to an enhancement of the effective electron-ion recombination rate through the substitution of polyatomic ions H2O+, H;1O+, and OH+ in place of the normally occurring O+. The depletion effect is apparently confined to the F-layer ionosphere above 200-km altitude where O+ is the dominant positive ion. The main reactions are
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