Research targets hurricane control
Research targets hurricane control
Monday, November 29, 2004
When Hurricane Frances and her 105 mph winds were slowly moving across our area on that scary, noisy Saturday night in early September, I was at the TV station talking on the phone. Actually, I was talking to dozens and dozens of people on the phone, many of whom were holed up in their safe room as Frances made landfall.
The electricity was out, but cell phones and battery-operated radios were working fine so we used both to keep folks up-to-date on the hurricane. In between describing the movement of the storm on radar and reporting the latest wind gusts, I took phone calls from viewers (actually listeners at that point) from across the area.
Some people were scared, others were curious about the location of the storm while still others asked me questions. One of the most common was a question I hear quite often: Why can't we make hurricanes go away?
The answer is pretty simple: a hurricane is so large and so powerful that no current technology would have any impact on it.
"When Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992, the eye and eyewall devastated a swath 20 miles wide," writes Dr. Chris Landsea on the Hurricane Research Division's Web site. "The heat energy released around the eye was 5,000 times the combined heat and electrical power generation of the Turkey Point nuclear power plant over which the eye passed."
Dr. Landsea concludes that perhaps sometime in the future, "when men and women can travel at nearly the speed of light to the stars," we may have the technology to affect a hurricane.
Ross Hoffman thinks that future is closer than one might realize. "Our research shows that modifying hurricanes could be possible one day," said Hoffman, the lead scientist with Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc.
For the past couple of years, Hoffman and his team have been working on ways to weaken or redirect hurricanes. And he's had some success, at least with computer simulations of hurricanes Iniki and Andrew, two storms from 1992.
For Hurricane Iniki, which produced widespread damage on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Hoffman changed conditions inside the storm (temperature and humidity), which turned the hurricane away from the island.
For Hurricane Andrew, which produced $26 billion in damages in southern Florida, Hoffman was able to reduce the storm's intensity from a Category 5 to a Category 1. Again, all of this was done using computer simulations.
Hoffman thinks any applications of his theories in the real world are still decades away. Still, he's convinced some day he will be able to weaken or change the course of a hurricane.
Hoffman believes that, in the not too distant future, satellites in orbit around the Earth will transmit microwave beams at hurricanes that will alter cloud temperatures, reduce the storm's moisture content and increase evaporation rates. All of that, he says, will weaken a storm or change its future track.
NASA thinks he may be on to something. The space agency is funding Hoffman's work with a $500,000 grant.
Perhaps some day Hoffman's theories will pan out and coastal residents won't have to worry about tropical storms and hurricanes. Perhaps some day we won't have to go through another long, scary noisy night with a hurricane.
Research targets hurricane control
Monday, November 29, 2004
When Hurricane Frances and her 105 mph winds were slowly moving across our area on that scary, noisy Saturday night in early September, I was at the TV station talking on the phone. Actually, I was talking to dozens and dozens of people on the phone, many of whom were holed up in their safe room as Frances made landfall.
The electricity was out, but cell phones and battery-operated radios were working fine so we used both to keep folks up-to-date on the hurricane. In between describing the movement of the storm on radar and reporting the latest wind gusts, I took phone calls from viewers (actually listeners at that point) from across the area.
Some people were scared, others were curious about the location of the storm while still others asked me questions. One of the most common was a question I hear quite often: Why can't we make hurricanes go away?
The answer is pretty simple: a hurricane is so large and so powerful that no current technology would have any impact on it.
"When Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992, the eye and eyewall devastated a swath 20 miles wide," writes Dr. Chris Landsea on the Hurricane Research Division's Web site. "The heat energy released around the eye was 5,000 times the combined heat and electrical power generation of the Turkey Point nuclear power plant over which the eye passed."
Dr. Landsea concludes that perhaps sometime in the future, "when men and women can travel at nearly the speed of light to the stars," we may have the technology to affect a hurricane.
Ross Hoffman thinks that future is closer than one might realize. "Our research shows that modifying hurricanes could be possible one day," said Hoffman, the lead scientist with Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc.
For the past couple of years, Hoffman and his team have been working on ways to weaken or redirect hurricanes. And he's had some success, at least with computer simulations of hurricanes Iniki and Andrew, two storms from 1992.
For Hurricane Iniki, which produced widespread damage on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Hoffman changed conditions inside the storm (temperature and humidity), which turned the hurricane away from the island.
For Hurricane Andrew, which produced $26 billion in damages in southern Florida, Hoffman was able to reduce the storm's intensity from a Category 5 to a Category 1. Again, all of this was done using computer simulations.
Hoffman thinks any applications of his theories in the real world are still decades away. Still, he's convinced some day he will be able to weaken or change the course of a hurricane.
Hoffman believes that, in the not too distant future, satellites in orbit around the Earth will transmit microwave beams at hurricanes that will alter cloud temperatures, reduce the storm's moisture content and increase evaporation rates. All of that, he says, will weaken a storm or change its future track.
NASA thinks he may be on to something. The space agency is funding Hoffman's work with a $500,000 grant.
Perhaps some day Hoffman's theories will pan out and coastal residents won't have to worry about tropical storms and hurricanes. Perhaps some day we won't have to go through another long, scary noisy night with a hurricane.
posted by DP at 4:53 PM
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