I have seen references to that over the years, but the amount of energy it would require would be tremendous, maybe dropping a few nukes into the eye?
Q: Why are we, as a nation, not proactive in researching ways to dismantle a hurricane at its source? Why can't we come up with solutions to try and disrupt the eye of the hurricane somehow? Could some type of tremendous bomb be exploded within the eye or near the arc of the eye wall to disrupt the circular flow? Could we somehow change the temperature within the funnel to decrease its potency, like massive amounts of dry ice? Or maybe even have a vehicle to counter the wind the direction the opposite way to disrupt it? I don't know if we have that capability yet but, doesn't it warrant some type of research to see if we can nip these hurricanes out in the Atlantic and prevent them (or least weaken them) from hitting the us or nearby islands so potently?
A: Essentially, ideas such as using bombs or dry ice to disturb hurricanes won't work because hurricanes are so large and contain so much energy.
A "vehicle to counter wind direction" would have to somehow effect the wind from ocean-level to maybe 30,000 feet up. I can't even imagine how much energy would be needed to run such a machine to counter the tremendous energy of a hurricane's winds.
You will find a lot more about the problems with ideas like yours and other ides by going to the USATODAY.com FAQ on Attempts to weaken, destroy hurricanes.
The U.S. government did run a major effort, called Project Stormfury, for almost 20 years ending in 1982, that searched for a way to weaken hurricanes using cloud seeding to attack what was thought to be a hurricane weak point.
It's a fascinating story, which is why when Bob Sheets and I wrote our book, Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth, we included an entire chapter on Stormfury. Bob was the last director of the project. In addition, I talked at length with Joanne and Bob Simpson - both of whom have been important hurricane researchers since the 1950s - who came up with the theory on how cloud seeding might weaken hurricanes. Joanne headed Stormfury for a time, and Bob Simpson was head of the USA's first hurricane research project and also headed the National Hurricane Center in the late 1960s.
The project ended after those involved decided that the money being spent of it could be better spent on learning more about hurricanes in order to produce better forecasts, which is what happened.
Another thing to consider. At one time those running Stormfury wanted to conduct their experiments on western Pacific typhoons because they would have many more storms to experiment on far from land. But the Japanese strongly objected because of the fear that modifying hurricanes could disrupt an important source of rain for Japan. In many places, including the southern USA, hurricanes or tropical storms sometimes end droughts.
Hurricanes are, after all, part of the connected atmosphere-ocean system that moves heat toward the polar regions and cold air and water toward the tropics to keep the Earth's heat budget in balance. This isn't the kind of system we want to mess with unless we really understand what the consequences might be.
(Answered by Jack Williams, USATODAY.com weather editor, Aug. 24, 2004)
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Q: Why don't they destroy or weaken hurricanes when they threaten land?
A: The basic problem is the size and intensity of hurricanes. They cover tens of thousands of square miles even when they are just beginning. They draw their energy from air over hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean. Cooling the water over this large area or finding a way to prevent evaporation of water would reduce hurricanes' strength. But, all of the dry ice in the world would be quickly absorbed in a small part of the ocean near a hurricane. Also, the hurricane would quickly move away from the cooled water or water covered with something to prevent evaporation.
The National Hurricane Center notes that a hurricane releases heat energy at a rate of 50 trillion to 200 trillion watts. (trillion here is used in the U.S. and French sense: a number followed by 12 zeros) This is the equivalent of a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding about every 20 minutes.
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Q: I saw a report on television about someone who had a substance that could be dropped into clouds and absorb water. They did an experiment where they dropped some on clouds off Florida and the clouds dissipated. The television reporter said this could be used to weaken hurricanes. Why isn't this done?
A: I've seen this report a couple of times, and both times I've been tempted to call the TV reporters and producers involved and offer them a good deal on a bridge in Brooklyn, N.Y. All reporters can't be expected to know a lot about everything they report, but they do owe it to their readers and viewers to find out what they don't know. A phone call to someone who knows about hurricanes, could have shown the problems with this idea.
The best discussion I've seen on this is in the FAQ on hurricanes on the NOAA Hurricane Research division Web site. If you go to the HRD's answer to this question, you'll see the idea has several problems, beginning with the claim that it caused clouds to dissipate. When I saw this I recalled something that a scientist who studies clouds told me several years ago, "You can make clouds go away by watching them." In other words, small cumulus clouds like those used in the "experiment' normally don't last very long. On a day when some of them will grow into thunderstorms, it's impossible to select the one that will grow since most of the clouds will quickly go away.
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Q: Wouldn't a huge bomb weaken a hurricane? If they are worried about radioactivity, they could use powerful fuel-oil bombs.
A: A bomb or bombs would be a dead end since the amount of energy a hurricane is releasing and the size of its circulation would make any bomb, including the largest nuclear bomb, seem more futile than trying to stop a charging elephant by throwing a ping-pong ball at it. As noted above, hurricanes release tremendous amounts of heat energy. In fact, since hurricanes are "heat engines" that depend on the temperature contrast between warmth at the ocean surface and cold air aloft, we could wonder whether the heat from any kind of bomb would actually add to the storm's natural heat supply, making the storm stronger. Trying to heat the upper atmosphere with bombs, to lessen the heat contrast, would be like trying to heat the city of Minneapolis in January by opening the windows of a house.
Until recent years, many people suggested using nuclear bombs. But, doing that would create a hurricane with the danger of radioactivity as well as wind and storm surge.
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Q: Since ocean heat is a source of hurricane energy, why not cool the ocean with icebergs or dry ice?
A: Again, the amount of heat involved is the problem. Transporting enough ice burgs or dry ice to cool thousands of square miles of tropical ocean would be extremely expensive. Plus, there is no way to know where a storm is likely to form or go after it forms more than a few days ahead. This means getting the ice to the right place would be a huge problem.
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Q: What happened to the idea of seeding hurricanes to weaken them?
A: During the 1960s the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tried a more sophisticated way of making hurricanes weaker. This research was known as Project Stormfurry. The basic idea was to seed clouds just outside the eye wall with silver iodide. The silver iodide, which is widely used in cloud seeding, encourages supercooled water - water that's colder than 32 degrees F but is liquid, not ice - to freeze. This releases latent heat, which would make the clouds grow, stealing some of the humid air that's helping the eye wall clouds grow and create strong winds.
This seemed to work with Hurricane Beulah in 1963 and Hurricane Debbie in 1969. But, scientists had no way of knowing whether these two storms would have weakened any way at that time. Hurricanes often weaken and then regain strength naturally. Also, since the 1980s researchers have found that most hurricanes don't have enough supercooled water for seeding to work.
Concerns were also raised that the experiments could make a storm change course, hitting some place that it otherwise wouldn't. The experiments did increase hurricane knowledge and also led to the purchase of the two WP-3 airplanes that NOAA still uses for hurricane research and tracking.
Bob Sheets, the retired director of the National Hurricane Center, and I have an entire chapter on Project Stormfury in our book, Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth. Bob was the last director of Stormfury.
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Q: Why not attack a storm when it's still only a weak tropical wave or depression?
A: About 100 waves or disturbances form in the Atlantic Basin each year, but only five become hurricanes in a typical year. There's no telling which will grow until they have started growing. Also, even a disturbance that's releasing only 10% as much energy as a hurricane is still releasing a lot of energy.
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Q: Since hurricanes draw their power from the latent heat released as the water vapor in humid air condenses, why not find a way to cut off the supply of humid air? That is, why not reduce the evaporation of water from the parts of tropical oceans that are supply the humid air a storm needs?
A: Since latent heat is the main source of the energy needed to run a hurricane, some researchers have attempted to develop liquids that could be spread over the ocean to limit evaporation. Even if such a liquid is ever developed, using it could raise serious concerns about environmental dangers. What would it do to life in the sea? Could it affect the weather in unintended ways? Since most of the rain that falls on land comes from water that evaporates over the oceans, could such an attempt to weaken hurricanes affect global rainfall? What would such a liquid be like if it washes up on beaches in the Caribbean?
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Q: Is trying to modify hurricanes such a good idea after all?
A: Today, scientists are more cautious about trying to modify the weather than they were during the 1960s. Hurricanes, along with other storms and ocean currents, help balance the Earth's heat budget. Trying to change hurricanes could have consequences that no one intended.
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