How do you stop a hurricane?
On of the problems several members of my family are working on solving is how do you stop a hurricane before it forms. After the recent events in Florida, the family has decided to expend mental energy on this topic. BBC Weather Central says, "Hurricanes are one of the most dangerous natural hazards to people and the environment. They are essential features of the Earth's atmosphere, as they transfer heat and energy between the equator and the cooler regions towards the poles." The real question is how to prevent this dangerous phenomenon. I am currently thinking about that topic, and suggest that maybe you give it a couple moments thought. The more people who attempt to solve the problem the faster we will find a solution.

The first thing you have to do to begin the process of building a guide on how to stop a hurricane is build a logic framework and devise a plan. I use a simple logic system that sounds something like this, "Reason is the power to observe at least three categories of assumptions including form, function, and structure." Appling this logic framework to stopping a hurricane involves thinking about how a hurricane actually forms.

1) What assumptions do we need to observe to questions the structure of a hurricane?

The first question of structure is about what makes up the recipe to form a hurricane. A hurricane must have a warm source of very moist air, which oceans tend to provide from time to time. Once the ocean provides enough warm moist air the next element in the recipe is rotation sometimes provided form the earths rotation itself and sometimes provided from the jet stream. To make a long story short the warm moist air rises and begins to rotate and if the process continues for long enough, a hurricane develops. The structure of a hurricane is fairly simple, which hopefully will provide us with a chance to figure out how to destabilize, breakdown, or even reverse the formation of a hurricane.

You do not have to trust my explanation, according to the BBC Weather Center, "As the warm sea heats the air above it, a current of very warm moist air rises up quickly, creating a center of low pressure at the surface. Trade winds rush in towards this low pressure and the inward spiraling winds whirl upwards releasing heat and moisture before descending." The BBC Weather center does a great job at explaining exactly how the formation of a Hurricane occurs, "The rotation of the Earth causes the rising column to twist, gradually taking on the form of a cylinder whirling around an eye of relatively still air, free from clouds." The final idea I would like to examine from the BBC Weather Center explanation explains the height of a hurricane. "Further aloft at 6 miles the cloud tops are carried outwards to give thick layer clouds due to the outward spiraling winds leaving the hurricane core." This explanation might create some of the clues necessary to breakdown a hurricane.

2) Questions of how a hurricane functions involve looking at what makes them sustainable.

Heat energy is stored in the moist water vapor, after all heat is a form of energy! The water evaporates and transfers heat into the rotating hurricane. This produces the huge clouds you see on radar images of a hurricane. Since the ocean has an abundant supply of warm moist water vapor, the hurricane has a near infinite supply of energy if it stays over the ocean. Starting to think about the various problems associated with how a hurricane functions begins the process of gathering the necessary knowledge. In my estimation, figuring out how specific hurricane functions interact with the environment will be the key to asking the right questions.

3) Questions of form we know that satellites can detect hurricanes.

According to the BBC Weather Center, "Satellites detect hurricanes in their early stages of development and can help to provide early warning of imminent hurricanes. Reinforced aircraft fitted with instruments fly through and over hurricanes, and weather radar can locate storms within 200 miles of the radar station." It is reasonable to suggest from the technology we have available that we can locate a hurricane before it becomes dangerous. Now we just need to figure out all the assumptions we need to isolate to begin to figure out how to use technology to stop a hurricane.

This is only the beginning of this thread of discussion. This is a problem I will be working on and the next step is to start thinking about possible solutions. That will be the next part of this guide.

Posted by nels lindahl at September 27, 2004 01:44 PM

Comments
Hello,

My thoughts on stopping the hurricane starts with early detection.

Isn't there some kind of explosive, that can be dropped in the open water that would suck the oxygen out of the air.

Or some kind of explosive that would cool the water in the area of the hurricane, because the fact that it's a small hurricane and just starting, these things could stop the hurricane.

I believe there has to be something in some way that can stop hurricanes early.

I live in the area that Charlie hit last August and saw the destruction first hand, something must be done.

Hurricanes are caused by Energy, we need to reverse the energy or stop the energy from growing.

Thank you

Peter A. Tibaldi

Posted by: peter a tibaldi at July 11, 2005 08:57 PM

Since we know that Hurricanes form in a small
area in the ocean with warm moist air.

First is it forms as a small circle with an eye.

We can stop it into becoming a big hurricane
by dropping ice cubes over that area with atleast
10 to 20 airplane loads.

This will cool down the moist air, and the heat
energy the hurricane will get will be dicipated.

Hence we can stop a small storm into becoming
a big hurricane.

Posted by: HARI at July 13, 2005 12:39 PM

we can use all the parachutes in the world and drop them into the middle of the storm

Posted by: johnny grech at August 28, 2005 10:25 PM

We could drop Mike R. in the eye and it would change it to a tropical storm within minutes

Posted by: sean at August 29, 2005 01:29 PM

The cold water at the bottom of the ocean needs to be brought up to the surface of the ocean. If a huge shot of air was shot to the bottom of the ocean to bring up the cold water, the hurricane might lose its power. Maybe a high explosive in the path of the hurricane at the bottom of the ocean could send up enough colder water...

Posted by: Jerry at August 29, 2005 07:30 PM

I think all of these ideas are great. One thing we need to remember thow is what would the effect on are enviroment be if we did stop hurricanes. Also by dropping bombs in the ocean or causeing explosions at the bottom of the ocean we might cause other probloms like tidal waves or earthquakes.

Posted by: Jeff Carreira at August 30, 2005 12:45 PM

this an important topic it needs new "can do" minds,cooling in the early stages does seem key and perhaps a look at how to direct the hurricane north to the cooler atlantic off the east coast. i believe the technolgy exist to prevent the worst effects but what is required are the minds willing to think on a grand scale.let us hope our massive goverments would at least entertaine that there are orther forces to battle on the planet besides thier choosen enemy.

Posted by: jesse at August 30, 2005 05:36 PM

How about design planes with big cold air fan blowers to push the hurricane more north to colder waters. The military has great planes to fly so close to the storm. Or develope some under water cooling system to shoot cold air up to the forming storm.

Posted by: Adrienne at August 31, 2005 02:30 PM

This is an interesting and worthwhile pursuit. I only wonder with the millions of dollars in U.S. Loss from the 2004-2005 hurricane season, why our government wouldn't be more engaged in developing technologies to arrest hurricane developement. I'm no scientist, but I have to believe that breaking a hurricane into its fundamental elements as you suggest would provide us the ability to target removal of one of these building blocks resulting in a breakdown of the hurricane. Take the fire triangle as an example. Fire fighters know that three elements are needed to produce fire (Fuel, Heat, and Oxygen). Remove or affect any one of these elements and the fire is extinguished. I guess the real issue would be the magnitute of influence needed to target an element within a hurricane. It is easy in a contained environment to surpress a confined fire but think how this is complicated when applied to a large scale like a forest fire. Same principle much larger effort. I guess what I'm saying is what technique to arrest a building block of a hurricane is MOST theoritically possible? I recently read an article (http://www.wesh.com/news/3963137/detail.html) about a man who claims he has developed a Powder capable of absorbing 4000 times it weight. There may be some merit with this. The feasible answer may be a combination of manageable techniques which target a breakdown of two or more hurricane elements. Best of luck in your efforts and I hope that someday we can eliminate the fear and financial implications of these disasters.

Posted by: Rick Schmidt at August 31, 2005 08:40 PM

With all that has happened in the past few days in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina you have to remember that when we start messing around with nature it always seems to bite us in the azz. Albeit sometimes many years or generations later.
I am fascinated with the dynamics of a population of any species which grows to its carrying capacity. This invariably means that anyone or anything extra or beyond the carrying capacity must die. That the population can only handle so many before it collapses due to resources or whatever. Do you think a population of ten thousand elephants could sustain itself naturally on an island the size of Mannhattan. Humans have been delaying and blocking nature from its rightful course for thousands of years. This is a fact! And no matter how aweful it seems to those of us who are not directly impacted by a catastrophic event it must be remembered that many many people/animals must die to keep the natural order of this world. Die, simply to buy time for more lives to live, just to gain the experience of living. Time is finally catching up to humans. Within the next 50 years we will reach our carrying capacity (estimated to be 12 billion) and then this world will see real chaos and total disorder. I think we've been seeing this evolution for many many generations and it has been worsening exponentially.

No no! I'm no "End of Timer". Just a realist. Take an ecology course and you will see how the nature "machine" works. On thing for sure...cockroaches will be here long after the last human on earth.

Leave the hurricanes alone.


Posted by: chris powell at September 1, 2005 10:16 PM

I understand the concept of letting nature take its course and I agree with that theory to an extent. However, I've given much consideration to developing stategies to stop hurricane formation myself. Whatever the solution, it must meet other criteria aside from removing one of the two basic elements involved. First, we must realize the economics involved in such a huge undertaking. Is the cost worth the effect? Second, would it be feasible to persuade government officials, scientists, engineers, and the population (who would carry the financial burden for generations to come) that the idea merits consideration? Then, aside from the economical stance, what sort of reprocussions would this attempt produce, on humans, wildlife, and nature itself? Would the actions cause more harm than good? Then, we must look at the phenominal geographic territory such and undertaking would involve. These storms can emerge virtually anywhere in the vast oceanic territory along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The only element we, as a population, could hope to control, or moderate, would be the water temperature. I've thought of many ways to do this, but the most logical way, would be to install a huge solar powered pumping system to pull the cooler water from the ocean depths, while circulating the warmer (energy packed)water back through cooling recepticals to reduce its temperature before dispersing it back into the ocean. A vast system 70-100 miles from the coasts of the hardest hit regions might be feasible. This could produce the cooler water temperatures needed to slow or even break up a hurricane. However, securing a system of this magnitude, would pose interesting challenges all of its own. At any rate, these are my thoughts on the subject. T M

Posted by: T Moody at September 2, 2005 12:06 AM

What about towing a large metal "sheet", maybe 2 or 3 square kilometers in area, into the eye of the hurricane and deprive it of the energy and moisture of the ocean? Even if you don´t choke it, you may be able to figure out a way to protect certain areas.

You need a lot of power and speed, but it does not seem so difficult, considering the power you can get from modern vessels. As hurricanes move at some 20 mph, tracking them is not out of the question.

Posted by: Aarne at September 5, 2005 04:36 AM

20 or more years ago I suggested that huge loads of dry ice be dropped into the ocean in the center of forming hurricanes. I checked out the theory with a professor at Stanford (as near as I recall - in order to be certain, I would have to locate the conversation in one of the hundreds of telephone logs I kept). In short, after discussing with his colleagues, he said that dry ice is mostly carbon dioxide and would not hurt the environment - and that it would probably work. Still, he also said that they were concerned about what other effects it may have; for instance creating mega-storms or hurting the shrimping industry off the coast of Africa.

I am convinced that cooling the surface of the ocean in the specific locale of the infant hurricane would do the job. However, enough dry-ice or regular ice to do the job could present huge logistical problems. Another possibility would be to (prior to the season) tow icebergs into the regions to wait in strategic positions. When the depression is first discovered, they could then be towed to the general projected paths and blown apart with high explosives to disseminate the ice over a large area. This could prove to be the cheapest method. Of course it would still cost many millions of dollars, but nothing compared to the damage one hurricane can do.

or use one pair of 2the9s' underpants, for the same result.

TheFrog said:

With or without skidmark?

Cloudbuster said:

Dunno - you'll have to sniff and see.

TheFrog said: