I Love Living In The Future.

[theweaselking]

Patenting a way to stop a hurricane.

(Guess The State, too, if you want to, but this isn't a bad or crazy story.)

Comments

OHIO!

[speck.livejournal.com]

Look around, the landscapes are so beautiful,
Especially in OHIO, where ev'ryone's insane ...

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Immediate and simultaneous reactions:


Comic Book Geek Brain: "Well, duh. Superman and The Flash have been doing that for 50 years or more."


Environmental Scientist Brain: "Clever idea, but what will the long-term effects on weather and climate be? Hurricanes are a major part of the atmospheric heat engine that shunt heat from the equator to the poles; all that heat won't just go away..."

[ikkarus01.livejournal.com]

but what will the long-term effects on weather and climate be?

I smell a disaster movie brewing.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I suspect that they'll only use it on hurricanes that are going to hit inhabited areas, that they'll only use it to *reduce* the power of hurricanes down to tropical storms, and that we'll get more hurricanes overall - meaning, more for them to stop *and* more that are allowed to go happily on their way because they're out to sea.

But that's my simplistic estimate. I hear there are people who make models of this for a living.

They'll pay for it out of a military budget

[speck.livejournal.com]

And aim them at the Middle East, Russia, or North Korea.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

Now, I'm not a pilot or anything, but wouldn't it be rather difficult to be doing doughnuts inside the eye of a hurricane at Mach 1.5?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The eye is 40-60km across, moving slowly. They'll be fine, once they're in.

Hitting the eyewall would suck, though, and getting *in* might be difficult unless the plane can go over the top of the clouds.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

F-4's can fly over the hurricane no problem.

[mrbankies.livejournal.com]

I'm not up on my atmospheric science, but if you're using something like an F-4, which has a service ceiling of 57,800 feet, getting above the storm to drop into the eye shouldn't be a problem.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

I don't know... it just seems like you wouldn't have a whole lot of volunteers for that kind of mission.

"We're looking for a few dumb motherfuckers... err, good men, to fly over and then inside a hurricane, do laps inside the eye at Mach 1.5, etc. etc."

I mean, sure, nifty if it works. But you hit that eyewall, and it's goodbye airman.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a perfect candidate for drones.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

Thhheee Dronnnezzzz are azzzzking to vorm a 'u-nyun', my queen. bzzzzz.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

There's plenty of wiggle room in the eye, especially for an aircraft as maneuverable as an F4.

You have to realize pilots of combat aircraft are all crazy to some extent already.

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem much crazy to me. You'd never have to buy another beer in your life if you destroy a hurricane that's about to hit land. You're either dead or you're the King of Florida.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

Same kind of people that volunteer for bomb squads, I'd imagine.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

Are there any calculations yet? I didn't see any in the article or attached patent application. I have a VERY hard time accepting the miniscule atmospheric disruption caused by the jets' sonic booms is going to even make a hurricane hiccup.

University of Akron?! Seriously?! Ohio and how to stop a hurricane? /head desk

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

And there are obvious military applications too. Hurricane's about to hit Cuba? Wax on! About to hit Texas? Wax off!

[elffin.livejournal.com]

FTA: "Sonic booms spread out as they travel away from an aircraft,"

and what they conveniently leave out is that the energy in a sonic boom drops in intensity as the cube root of distance from origin point.

With a 40-60 km diameter for the eye ... I'm not seeing this as effective. Tornados, maybe. Hurricanes ... no.

[spazcat101.livejournal.com]

Why are they worrying about hurricanes in Ohio? I'd've guessed Florida.