Fig. 6. Probability of a cflos for at least one site given that N are available. The behavior depicted in Fig. 6 is probably representative of other regions giving poor single-site power availabilities, such as the Northwest in winter. To meet our criteria of/> 0.8 for T > 0.80 under these conditions, three receptor sites must be available separated by r ~ 300 miles. For the majority of other regions, for which P ranges from about 0.4 to 0.7, the centroid radius may be reduced to f ~ 200 miles. Only for the Southwest can the number of mandatory receptor sites be reduced to N=2. Under these conditions, the centroid radius could be as small as 50 miles. The average persistence time, defined as the average time for which the beam remains at a given receptor before the transmission efficiency becomes unacceptable (T < 0.8) and the beam must be switched to an alternate site, ranges from greater than 24 h for southwestern sites to less than 4 h for the least favorable sites. Obviously, the receptor device, laser transmitter, and electric-power grid must be capable of accommodating these switching demands. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Statistical analyses performed using the cflos model indicate that power availabilities in excess of 80% are unattainable in most geographical regions of the United States if only a single receptor site is available for each transmitted laser beam (the
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