Countering Planetary Shielding

[lordofFNORD]

Shields are volumetric; although they do have a "surface" or "edge" they also occupy space; the theater shield may interfere with repulsorlift systems while active, deaccelerate the thrust stream of ion engines, or may damage directly "ungrounded" vehicles.

I would consider the game examples apocryphal or examples of different shielding types.

In that case, how were the fighters piloted by the rebels operating? Does the shield selectively interfere with only the enemies' repulsorlifts?

Another option is that the different types of engines are affected differently. The field may interfere with TIE fighters, but not vehicles with different kinds of engines. The rebel air support consisted of dedicated atmospheric vehicles (no X-wings, notice) which likely have use a different type of engine. The Imperial fleet may not have had atmospheric craft available, or didn't want to take the time to ferry them down.

[Dark Flame]

Shields are volumetric; although they do have a "surface" or "edge" they also occupy space;

Where did you find this particular nugget of info?

[JointStrikeFighter]

Shields are volumetric; although they do have a "surface" or "edge" they also occupy space;

Where did you find this particular nugget of info?

AOTC ICS.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Wasn't the shield only covering the air above the base in a wall or slightly-curves structure?

It would've completely domed the base, since otherwise the Imperials could've pulled a Tantive IV and stormed the place with armed landing craft.

And Galactic Battlegrounds, Empire At War and Force Commander does have repulsorcraft passing through shielding.

You're using RTS Gameplay as evidence?

[Dark Flame]

AOTC ICS.

Thanks. I guess maybe I should try to get ahold of the ICS and read it.

[avatarxprime]

Wasn't there a comment in the movie about finishing modifications to the speeders?

That was cold weather adaption. It hadn't finished at the time Han went looking for Luke, which is why he had to do it on a taunton.

OK, I couldn't remember exactly what all the rebel engineer said. However it is possible that the cold weather was the last modification and that they had already been readied to function in a shield. Although I like lordofFNORD's theory as a possible explanation.

[PainRack]

Star Wars shielding systems dump the waste heat built up in their heat sinks as neutrinos, re-radiating the energy away.
Of course, as well as a limit to the rate at which a shield can safely shunt incoming weapon energy into the heat sinks, there's also a limit to the rate at which it can be bled away as neutrinos. Since shielding systems are known to fail if they are bombarded repeatedly over time, this is presumably because the latter rate is typically lower than the former; eventually the heat sinks become full, the shield system can no longer safely absorb more energy.

Presumably, the systems that are capable of shunting away teratons of energy can also easily control the temperature of the environment below. This is, of course, if we assume that a world that can afford a full planetary shield can also afford climate control (like Coruscant's weather control).

Hence, in order to cause heat buildup on the planet surrounded by a shield, there's no easy way around it; you still have to dump enough energy to overwhelm their planetary shielding system.

I was referring more to radiation from the sun when I talked about heat. We simply don't know how raised shields might interact with the planet dynamics if raised for too long....... the fact that it prevents some form of radiation from entering the planet may cause ecological issues if the shields are raised constantly for months at a time. As you said, climate control would probably solve the issue, but that leads to the second problem. Energy supplies.

It is mentioned that shields are expensive and require a relatively long time to turn on. This suggests that it may not be very efficient, resulting in energy loss. Compound this difficulty via a steady bombardment and shields may run out of power due to the need to move energy out of the system. Unless you're suggesting that the SW heat sink system doesn't require energy?

Ultimately, no fortress world would ever be protected against a mobile fleet capable of conducting siege operations. They would require at least some form of space resistance and resupply from outside in order to continue fighting.