ANOTHER SMOKING GUN: Maui Fire Breaks SCIENCE as we know it…
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I might mention that lasers do not project microwave radiation. You really don't know what you are talking about.
It is statements like this that make me think you must be an agent provocateur. Be honest, which three letter agency do you work for?
You can easily make a laser in the microwave spectrum. Technically it's called a maser, I called it a laser because I didn't want to be confusing, and because a maser is a laser variant (i.e. microwaves are just as much light as any other frequency of photons).
Try again big guy.
And it is statements like yours that make me think that you don't think. I am a simple retiree of modest means...but I happen to know my shit.
Masers preceded lasers, according to a different physical implementation. Lasers came along later and they borrowed/updated the acronym. Microwaves are not good at coupling with metal; they bounce off. Which is why they started out being used for radar. They also have significantly more diffraction spreading (proportional to wavelength). You called a maser a laser because you didn't want to be confusing? To confuse something with another is to call them by the same name.
Whatever you are trying is not worth it.
A "Laser" can be of any frequency. Laser means "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." The "L" just means "light." Microwaves are just light. A maser is just a microwave frequency laser., It lases (makes coherent by stimulated emission of a medium) light in the microwave frequency. Lumping all frequency lasers into the term "laser" is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, since they are all "light". If you don't like it, I'm OK with that, but most people don't mind it at all, as that is how it is commonly done.
"Masers" and "Lasers" (or more precisely, lasers in the microwave frequency)) are exactly the same thing. The lasing medium is different (obviously) but they are functionally identical. You use all the same equations, all the same principles of construction, everything is identical. The actual engineering is different, because the lasing medium is different and the creation of light in the microwave frequency is different, which will require different engineering of the device, and maybe that is what you mean, but the physics is all exactly the same.
Some of their energy goes into moving free electrons around, some gets reflected. If metal has edges (like aluminum wheels, wheel bolts, cars in general) it gets bounced around a lot. The more it gets reflected, the more the electrons move around. If there is enough energy absorption/reflection/electron movement this can create a plasma, which can melt metal.
There are various ways to increase the coupling and/or increase the total energy absorption in metals. You can pulse the laser, for example, creating electric or phononic resonance. You can couple one laser frequency with another, creating runaway thermal effects (localized heating which can begin a melting process, like a torch, which in turn creates more surfaces to bounce off of, which creates more electron movement --> more plasma --> more heating --> etc.). Who knows all the techniques people have come up with. All of these effects are used in various technologies, and all can be coupled with microwaves to heat things up/melt them.
Maybe the DEWs don't use microwaves at all. Maybe they use a different frequency, one that couples with metal better. Maybe they use both.
That microwaves under the right conditions can melt metal is not in question. That DEWs exist is not in question. That microwave frequency DEWs exist is not in question. That DEWs can be put in space is not in question. That microwave energy can be transferred from high altitude or from geostationary orbit to the surface of the earth is not in question.
It is a reasonable question to ask whether or not microwaves (or light of any frequency that has a low(ish) coupling with air) can be used to melt aluminum wheels from long distance DEWs. There are plenty of reasonable objections there. Can enough energy be transmitted from space (or high altitude) to cause that effect? If enough energy is thus transmitted, what would it do to the other materials when compared to the aluminum? What other technologies (pulsing, or additional frequencies e.g.) can be used to improve it's coupling and/or overall energy transfer with aluminum or other metals? What other frequencies might be used in long range DEWs to cause the same effect?
Something strange is going on with these fires. Car wheels never melted from car fires before, so why are they now? It is fair to assume there is a new component. It is fair to think that it might be DEWs since we know they exist, even if we don't necessarily know their capabilities. NO ONE knows their capabilities, so there are a lot of reasonable questions.
You do not seem willing to ask those questions because you know it all already.
Until you can let yourself appreciate that you don't necessarily "know your shit" as much as you think you do, you can never ask the right questions.
Since I was there from the beginning, I can tell you that you are making up a confusion that never existed in the technical media. The maser was first (1953) and the laser followed (1961)---taking its name as a variation of "maser." Anyone who confuses them is simply ignorant. Anyone who tries to say that such confusion is legitimate is trying to back-pedal ignorance.
Since I did study laser engineering---and applied it in the design and analysis of laser weapons---you are simply feeding me stuff I digested a very long time ago. When metal can be polished to 99% reflectance, they become tough cookies to heat up, which accounts for their alarming performance in microwave ovens.
Your various technical ideas are entertaining, but not representative of the field. That microwaves can be beamed from geostationary orbit to the Earth is not in question, but the size of the target zone is. The laws of optics dictate that the smaller the target zone, the larger the projection aperture. Under the best circumstances (large target zone), we are talking kilometers. In order to have pinpoint target selection (meters), the projection aperture must be tens of kilometers in size. This has nothing to do with power level, by the way. So, you are talking about a system so technically infeasible, it would never be built. (Moreover, it could never be kept secret. We are not the only ones who monitor what is in geostationary orbit.) It is for this reason of optical requirements that, when space-based lasers were first considered, the proposed orbital altitudes were not much higher than 1,000 km.
As for car wheels, maybe the tires did not catch fire in previous cases (burns hot). Don't forget that car wheels used to be steel, which melts at a significantly higher temperature than aluminum. There is also the possibility that in a very hot fire, the evaporated aluminum vapor would catch fire, at a very high flame temperature. My junior high school metal shop used to create molten aluminum for lost-wax casting, using a small forge (size of a suitcase) powered by propane. Hardly any more remarkable than melting lead.
Questions are good, but stupid or ridiculous answers are not. It is not "fair" to invoke something that does not exist (spaceborne or airborne DEWs), and for which there is NO EVIDENCE. That is just mental laziness. Yes, compared to you, I do know it all. That is what being in the field means.