Smoking out a hurricane
Many people have come up with theories to weaken hurricanes, but a group of researchers in Israel have applied for a patent for a technique that will weaken hurricanes using smoke.
The theory that has had positive results in computer simulations will inject smoke into lower levels of a hurricane. The small particles of the smoke will cause water vapor to condense at a lower altitude, forming water droplets that are too small to become raindrops. It is the formation of raindrops that releases latent heat, which in return increases the strength of the storm.
The smoke creates clouds with lots of small droplets instead of large raindrops, and this in turn shifts some of the storm’s energy away from the center, which in turn lowers wind speeds. The computer simulations showed that this theory can reduce the radius of hurricane force winds by at least 25%.
The scientists have never field tested this theory, but have determined that it would take 5-10 cargo airplanes to smoke out one hurricane.
Posted by
on 02/17 at 03:26 PM
