Space based solar power system: Analysis of atmospheric transmittance for laser beam propagation

Abstract

Space based solar power system is described. The above system has various subsystems and one of its subsystems, propagation of captured solar energy in the form of electromagnetic waves, is considered here. Various alternatives for the above exist, but Laser is the touted as a promising candidate for such propagation in future. In this paper Transmittance is calculated at different altitudes using the known atmospheric extinction coefficients for the molecular and aerosol components. The analysis is performed for three different wavelengths in infrared region: 1.06, 1.67, 2.17 microns, which happens to be the operating wavelengths for high powered Lasers. Inferences are drawn from the results obtained from the simulation.