Controlling and shaping the near field to generate 2 meter or 20 meter long plasma channels

It should be possible to form that into a single beam. Thanks for sharing.

Controlling and shaping the near field to generate 2 meter or 20 meter long plasma channels

It would need an additional array of charge and voltage nodes, sensors and machine intelligence algorithm. I am just saying it should be possible. My first impression was it could be pulsed like a plasma gun. If you look at what is called “plasmonics”, they are shaping and creating fields at nano surfaces. But most of electronics, and ionics, is scale independent. It might need laser air ionization. I do not know this group or the people here. I just joined recently. My guess would be you all want to shape fields and use them to do stuff like ion beam cutting, milling, implantation, coating, surface hardening, inscribing, welding. That sort of thing.

Here I saw the solid base of the channels, and relatively little branching. You all are using “modulation” for music and sound plasma speaking, so you must be familiar with controlling the timing and control of current and voltage to parts of a spark (plasma) generator. The drone power control units have very high current and rate of current change capabilities. I just thought some kind of sensors could map the field and shape it with control systems in real time. If you were not already able to get that kind of spark, I would not have suggested it.

As I said, “some kind of sensors could map the field” I was also thinking of the Solar Dynamics Observatory AIA 171 Angstrom images. They are taking photos of selected ionization regions on the sun in 2D (and it should be possible to extend to 3D and time) where specific ionization states are happening and how much,

You might like to look at the latest AIA 171 angstrom videos at SDO. “The Sun Now” is at https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and gsfc is the Goddard Space Flight Center. The latest AIA 171 48 hour video is at https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/latest48.php?q=0171. Under “HMI & AIA Channels” on the left at “The Sun Now” there is explanation of the ionization state changes they use. AIA 171 uses the Fe IX (“iron 9”) ionization state transition to image the quiet corona, and upper transition region. The temperature is given in “dex” units. That 5.8 means 10^5.8 or 630,957.3 Kelvin. To convert that to electron volts divide by 11604 (Kelvin/eV) so about (10^5.8)/11604 = 54.37 volts is that ionization.

The “NIST Atomic Spectra Database Lines Form” is at https://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/ASD/lines_form.html and the “Fe IX” lines in nanometer (nm) or Angstrom (A with a little circle over it) can be listed. “Retrieve Data” is a funny way to sag “get the data” but it works. It does have “Observed wavelength where it is corrected for air.

I almost gave up, but 171.073 +/- 0.003 is in the list and that “120” means it is a strong line. The units for “120” in that column “Rel. Int.” (Relative Intensity”) are a summary of the A_ki in the next column which should be “events or ionizations per second. So that is 2.01E11 of those 54 eV transitions per second. I think the A_ki are called “Einstein coefficients” which he introduced for stimulated and spontaneous emissions.

You can get the energy in electron volts by using E = PlancksConstant*SpeedOfLight/Wavelength_Meters.

Using the Codata values

h = Plancks
Constant at https://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?h = 6.62607015E-34 Joules/Hertz

c = SpeedOfLight at https://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?c = 2.99792458E8 Meters/Second

e = ElectronCharge at https://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?e = 1.602176634E-19 Coulombs (or Joules/Volt)
w = Wavelength in Meters

E_electonVolts = h*c/(w*e) = (h*c/e) / w_meters = (6.62607015E-34*2.99792458E8/(1.602176634E-19))/w_meters in electronVolts = (12398.4198433 electronVolt Angstrom)/w_Angstrom)

(12398.4198433 electronVolt Angstrom)/(171.073 Angstrom) = 72.4744398 eV*Angstrom

Google won’t calculate it directly. And the calculator they put first is wrong. So that earlier 54 eV from the temperature is likely some black body radiation cavity conversion. I am checking Google and all the AIs and search engines for their conversions on the Internet. Just now I tried several “Angstrom to eV” converters and they all gave different answers. And all were different in style, methods and operation.

If you ask Google ((h*c)/(171.073 angstrom) in eV) they say 72.4744398 electron volts

Why does this matter? Because there are tens of thousands of people experimenting with high voltages, high current, high power density devices because of the lower cost of electric car and drone components and changes in the electric power industry and high power density semiconductors. If we want to get to “electric rockets and space vehicles” it needs that kind of precise control.

I worked with Compton Tucker at NASA GSFC back in the mid 1980s when I was Director of the USAID/ State Department Famine Early Warning System. NASA provided satellite images of Africa (the whole world) that allows monitoring vegetation, and its health. He is still there as of a few months ago.

But, anyway. I think it should be possible to make a 2 meter or 20 meter beam and scan it by shaping the near field and operating with continuous prediction and correction. A good problem to see what happens and maybe a useful method in vacuum.

I went back to check that Kelvin to eV conversion and 11604.525 Kelvin/eV is what people use, but a cavity is different than a gas. I converted 72.4744398 eV to Kelvin to get 841031.448967 Kelvin and log10(841031.448967) is 5.9248 dex, and SDO rounded to 5.8? These conversion are important for the Internet where 5.4 Billion Internet users are all presented with massive fragmented confusion now, not stable and reliable tools and global open references that work precisely for the whole solar system.

Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation