Hurricane-Controlling Satellites?

[seymourscience]

Does anybody know about the Space Island Group's plan to launch a solar satellite which can be used to disrupt hurricanes? Can it or will it work??

 

[spacebugger]

They will use the satelites to beam a weak microwave to earth to warm the air on either side of the hurricane, steering it away from land or weakening it to lower categories or back to tropical storms.

 

[yevaud]

...and both of you have no idea of what you're talking about. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[jatslo]

It does not heat the air; it heats the water vapor or humidity. Interesting.

 

[yevaud]

Correction: three of you. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[jatslo]

Those microwaves are melting the ice sheets, and causing global warming too.

 

[scottb50]

I seriously think it's a lot more complicated than that. How many times do I have to tell you to not buy stuff from Acme. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[jatslo]

<font face="verdana">Quite simplistic actually; you only need start sporadic pockets of melting and you will have yourself a little chain reaction similar to what triggered the cataclysmic Missoula floods that repeatedly took place towards the end of the last ice age. Smaller similar events have occurred more recently in Iceland and Antarctica; the microwaves are heating pockets within the ice and causing thermal chain reactions, whereas receding glacier activity is less violent than a land barrier breach an ensuing cataclysmic flood.</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><font face="verdana" color="black">I seriously think it's a lot more complicated than that. How many times do I have to tell you to not buy stuff from Acme.</font><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote>

 

[yevaud]

I'm going to wager you watched the Nova about that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

Their website has a little information on the plan...<br /><br /><i>The first Space Island solar satellite prototype devoted to hurricane control should be in orbit by about 2012. It will likely test the storm-control computer models on Pacific hurricanes, which are spawned off the west coast of Mexico. These westbound storms usually blow themselves out in the Pacific before they reach land, so they offer a safer way to refine this technique in international waters. <br /><br />Once the operating parameters are set, more advanced solar satellites will orbit over the Atlantic between Florida and Africa, off the coast of Japan and in other storm areas.</i><br /><br />From: http://www.spaceislandgroup.com/solarsat.html<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[jatslo]

I was doing research last night and came across an article, but I do remember hearing the story. I do live in the Northwest you know.

 

[yevaud]

Ah. Well, there was also a Nova hour show on the same topic quite recently. Very interesting. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[jatslo]

I think I saw it on the National Geographic web site last night, and I will look for excerpts of NOVA now.

 

[jatslo]

Here it is, and it is a very professional looking web site too http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/.

 

[yevaud]

Yes, that's the very one. It was quite good.<br /><br />I live about 1 mile from WGBH. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[jatslo]

I would imagine that is beautiful country; I used to live in Colorado when I was a kid, and I was always amazed at geography. I'd spend my life on the land, if I could.

 

[yevaud]

Yes, very beautiful indeed. I haven't been there, but many other similar places as nice. I know what you mean about being happy moving there. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[nexium]

Hurricanes steer toward the highest humidity and are made stronger. Heating the clouds might thin them, by evaporating the water droplets.<br />Better, I think, would be shading the ocean from the sun, thus reducing evaporation. A million square mile sun shade in solar sychronous orbit might abate huricanes everywhere, and lower Earth's average temperature by 0.5 degrees c = 0.9 degrees f. Neil

 

[josh_simonson]

>It is folly to think about controlling or preventing hurricanes. They serve a very important function: energy conduits that funnel high temperatures in the troposphere into the stratosphere, where heat can be more readily radiated to space. Supressing hurricanes would cause a catastrophic rise in other kinds of violent weather around the globe. <br /><br />It might cause problems to prevent them entirely, but acting to weaken them 1 or 2 levels before landfall would have minimal impact since they're mostly at sea, but would reduce the damage they cause by over 90%. You can have your cake and eat it too then.