As the Northeast begins the slow process of cleaning up after Superstorm Sandy, one expert believes there is a way to lessen the power of hurricanes.
The impact of Superstorm Sandy will be felt for a long time for those living in storm-ravaged areas. With the death toll continuing to climb and damage estimates spiraling towards $50 billion dollars, Sandy impacted areas as far west as Wisconsin and south as the Carolinas.
Although a Category 1 hurricane, Superstorm Sandy’s record low pressure of 940 mb recorded on Monday afternoon was the lowest reading ever recorded for an Atlantic storm making landfall north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and was equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. Was Superstorm Sandy “a sign of things to come,” as climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University suggests and, if so, can anything be done to lessen or stop these storms?
Once a hurricane forms, there’s no way of stopping it. Hurricanes are enormous, covering tens of thousands of square miles in size. Superstorm Sandy, for example, was twice the size of Texas. The energy contained within hurricanes is more powerful than our most powerful nuclear weapons. As their winds increase, so does their power.
Hurricanes gather heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters, and evaporation from seawater increases their strength. If there was a way to remove some of the energy that hurricanes feed off of, however, there might be a way to lessen their strength or even prevent them from occurring.
Dr. John Latham, a Senior Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, has been studying this phenomenon.
“If you go from 50 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour you get a four-fold increase in catastrophic energy,” Latham says.
Latham has been looking at ways to “knock the wind out of a hurricane,” and one of his ideas was something he came up with decades ago. He believes that if ocean waters could be cooled, there might be a chance of lessening the strength of any storm that forms. “Lessen the winds and you lessen the power of the storm.”
Latham’s idea involves seeding clouds with tiny particles of sea water, which would cause the clouds to reflect more sunlight back into space, resulting in less heating of the ocean’s surface. The end result would be cooler ocean waters and less energy for hurricane development. Latham suggests possibly using remote-controlled or wind-powered ships to do the work, sending misted seawater into clouds.
According to Latham, even a small reduction in temperature could result in a huge difference in a hurricane’s strength. Researchers at the University of Leeds agree, and their calculations suggest that even just a few degrees difference could reduce a hurricane’s power by one category.
There are concerns, however, and Latham and other researchers worry about the consequences of weather manipulation. “Much more research is needed and we are clear that cloud seeding should not be deployed until we are sure there will be no adverse consequences regarding rainfall,” says Dr. Alan Gadian of the University of Leeds. “However, if our calculations are correct, judicious seeding of maritime clouds could be invaluable for significantly reducing the destructive power of hurricanes.”
Another drawback is cost, as field-testing could run into the tens of millions of dollars. Compared to the billions Superstorm Sandy will cost, however, that amount seems small. And if Sandy was an omen of storms to come, then “The costs of the damage let alone the human life are really so much greater than the cost of the field experiment to test the idea out,” says Latham.
Unfortunately, the biggest drawback is continued weather modification, which has been ongoing for decades. As the knowledge of understanding climatic processes increases, so too do the possibilities for misuse, but perhaps we’re already seeing the results.
Click here to see article as it appeared in print: http://www.gcnlive.com/wp/2012/11/02/barb-adams-can-we-tame-superstorms/
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