Orders of magnitude (power)
This page lists examples of the power in watts produced by various sources of energy. They are grouped by orders of magnitude, and each section covers three orders of magnitude, or a factor of one thousand.
Below 1 watt
Below 1 yoctowatt
1.64 × 10−27 watt – phys: approximate power of gravitational radiation emitted by a 1000 kg satellite in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth.
zeptowatt (10−21 watt)
~10 zW – tech: approximate power of Galileo space probe's radio signal (when at Jupiter) as received on earth by a 70-meter DSN antenna.
attowatt (10−18 watt)
1 aW – phys: approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems are overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.
100 aW – tech: the GPS signal strength measured at the surface of the Earth.
femtowatt (10−15 watt)
2.5 fW – tech: minimum discernible signal at the antenna terminal of a good FM radio receiver
10 fW (−110 dBm) – tech: approximate lower limit of power reception on digital spread-spectrum cell phones