Scientist Are Working to 'Steer' Hurricanes

E++99 writes "In the wake of Katrina, two teams of climate scientists have been working to steer hurricanes. Both teams are using the technique of removing power and speed from strategic points in the hurricane, effectively refracting its path. The American team is approaching this by warming the areas of the tops of the hurricane clouds, either by dropping ash to absorb heat from the sun, or directly beaming microwaves on those areas from space. The Israeli team is taking the approach of cooling the bottom of the hurricane by releasing dust along its base."

Sounds dangerous

[morgan_greywolf]

Really. It sounds dangerous. It's not best to mess with Mother Nature. Especially when it comes to climate and weather. IMHO, weather control such as steering hurricanes will create more problems than it solves. Do you know what the results would be? Do you know what the long-term effects of hurricane steering would be? No, no one does because it hasn't been done.

um ... liability?

[Fractal Dice]

I hope they have good liability insurance.

We shouldn't be doing this.

[fredricodagreat]

I know that the whole point is to save lives and all, but we really shouldn't be doing this. As it is we have screwed up the planet a lot. I'm sure there is some natural benefit to hurricanes (not that I know what it is) and by trying to control them, we are screwing with the ecosystem even more than we already have. At some point we're going to figure out how to control it and some guy is going to wipe out all of Florida in one big swoop because something didn't go exactly as planned. Don't screw with nature. Karma bites.

Might be just a scam!

[mritunjai]

Sounds awfully like a scam to get government funding for research, actually.

A typical hurricane packs a punch worth an "ordinary" atomic bomb exploding every minute. It would take an insane amount of energy to add/remove to even make a statistically significant difference.

Mother nature is *really* powerful and not to be messed with!

Ah, now if they could figure out how to remove some energy and convert into electricity, now THAT would be useful... a season's worth of storms can solve whole world's energy problem ;-)

Re:Hurricane warfare

[Colin Smith]

Because economic sanctions have turned Cuba from a communist enclave to capitalist paradise.

 

Forest fire Prevention

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like Forest fire prevention to me. Looks good on paper, works for a few years.
But a 100 years later, whooops we made it worse.

In the latest news...

[VeteranNoob]

It has been two weeks since scientists first tried to take the offensive with hurricane Murphy, and it seems the worst is yet to come.

Murphy was threatening the east coast as a, then, category 4 storm when scientists unleashed an assault of new techniques intended to thwart a disaster by gently steering the hurricane to a less populated portion of the coast. It became immediately clear that the efforts worked. Too well, in fact!

Hurricane Murphy took a steep turn to the northeast into the Atlantic, preventing all but the slightest landfall and causing practically no loss of life. The unintended consequence of this was that Murphy was now back in warm waters building power once again, something scientists hadn't predicted due to their underestimation of their initial efforts to divert it.

After about two weeks, Murphy has since looped back around to its original course aiming straight for northern Florida and Georgia. But the push back into the ocean has left it with a much higher force, so far reaching the higher end of the category 5 range and begging scientists to create, for the first time, a new category 6 level.

It has been decided that nothing will be done to coerce the hurricane this time as it makes landfall. Even if scientists were once again ready to release a barrage of new-tech weather weapons, they are not sure that they wouldn't exacerbate the situation.

<disclaimer>I am not a meteorologist, nor do I have a decent understanding of how hurricanes work due to my living in catastrophe-proof West Texas.</disclaimer>

How would this have helped katrina?

[Hebbinator]

Listen, the hurricaine was only half the problem. The reason Katrina was a disaster was not because of direct hurricaine damage that this kind of thing may prevent. Moving the hurricaine to the east or west would not stop the water surge that caused the levees to break! This is not the direction we should be heading as a society.

Why not spend this money on infrastructure and first responders? Or people to check to make sure mandatory evac's are carried out? Or insurance reform? If you had a hurricane coming at your house, would you rather have trained people to help you, make sure you get away safely and securely, and that your material things are protected... or would you rather count on beams from space? Are you kidding?

Re:b/c it must be said

[Matt Edd]

It did not need to be said. Please keep your unimaginative comments to yourself.

Re:Uhmmm......

[Mode_Locrian]

This is essentially a real-life, large scale version of the much discussed "Trolley Problem" (originally posed by Philippa Foot). (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem [wikipedia.org] for a more-or-less accurate sketch.)

This is disheartening

[Normal_Deviate]

Well over half the posts on this topic are variations on "Don't do it because something might go wrong", the modern version of "God did not intend man to meddle."

Pointing out something that might go wrong does not require wit, only a desire to obstruct or to appear wise. Even less is required to point out that something vague and unspecified might go wrong. Even less, to refuse to notice that something massively valuable is likely to go right.

Imagine the Slashdot posts on the "Man invents fire" story.

As Someone Who Grew Up in the Florida Keys

[Comatose51]

To be honest, every time there is a hurricane, I am more relieved if it is headed towards the Florida Keys instead some where else that doesn't usually get hit by one. People who grew up in the Keys know about hurricanes. Our houses are mostly steel reinforced concrete and built on stilts. The flood water has to be a story high before it can reach the living room of my parent's house. Keys residents will laugh at anything that's category 3 or less. We know how to stock up on food and when to evacuate because it's something we have to do every couple of years.

My point is that directing a hurricane else where will likely cause more damage and deaths because the places where hurricanes hit have developed "defenses" against them. This is not an useful idea if they're intending to do good. Plus a great deal of natural life actually depends on the occasional hurricane to replenish itself. Hurricanes are natural events in those areas and people and wildlife have adapted to them.