An analysis of radar exposure in the San Francisco area, Technical note ORP-EAD 77-3
Tell R A · 1977
The 1977 EPA documented radar exposure across San Francisco, revealing how entire populations lived within invisible electromagnetic fields.
Plain English Summary
This 1977 EPA technical report analyzed radar exposure levels across the San Francisco Bay Area, mapping electromagnetic radiation from military and civilian radar installations. The study represents one of the earliest systematic assessments of population-level radar exposure in a major metropolitan area during the height of Cold War radar deployment.
Why This Matters
This pioneering 1977 EPA analysis came at a crucial time when radar installations blanketed urban areas with virtually no public awareness of exposure levels. The San Francisco Bay Area hosted dozens of military and civilian radar systems, creating a complex electromagnetic environment that residents navigated daily without knowledge of the invisible radiation around them. What makes this study particularly significant is its timing - conducted just as scientists were beginning to understand that non-ionizing radiation could have biological effects beyond simple heating. The reality is that radar systems operate at power levels thousands of times higher than today's cell phones, yet received far less scrutiny. This early environmental assessment laid groundwork for understanding how entire populations can be exposed to pulsed microwave radiation from multiple sources simultaneously.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To determine the extent of ambient exposure which may be attributed to radar installations in metropolitan areas
The analysis was based on measurement data contained within the ITS report on San Francisco area mea...
Radar exposure at the Palo Alto site was 2.7 x 10^-9 W/cm? and at the Bernal Heights site 1.1 x 10^-...
The total exposure is predominated by a few sources with other detectable radars adding very little. Radar exposure levels are generally equal to or lower than commonly existing radio-frequency fields from signals in the broadcast service. The results suggest that radars are not a major perturbation of the ambient electromagnetic radiation exposure picture, on the average, at randomly picked locations in a metropolitan area.
Show BibTeX
@article{an_analysis_of_radar_exposure_in_the_san_francisco_area_technical_note_orp_ead_7_g4996,
author = {Tell R A},
title = {An analysis of radar exposure in the San Francisco area, Technical note ORP-EAD 77-3},
year = {1977},
}