A view of Hurricane Sandy from GOES East satellite-Credit: NASA GOES East, Stuart Rankin via Flickr
To save lives and reduce costs, there would be tremendous advantage if science had a way to stop a devastating hurricane like Sandy. And scientists have thought of it before. One idea that rears its head almost every hurricane season recently is the notion of bombing a hurricane into submission. The theory goes that the energy released by a nuclear bomb detonated just above and ahead of the eye of a storm would heat the cooler air there, disrupting the storm’s convection current. Unfortunately, this idea, which has been around in some form since the 1960s, wouldn’t work.
Chris Landsea, science and operations officer at the National Hurricane Center, posted an explanation when he was a research meteorologist with NOAA.
“The main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required,” Landsea wrote.
A hurricane gets its energy from warm ocean water, and in the process of water vapor condensing into rain droplets. The heat released during condensation serves to continue to warm the surrounding air, which causes more seawater to evaporate, condense, and continue the cycle.
A fully developed hurricane releases 50 or more terawatts of heat energy at any given moment, only about 1 percent of which is converted into wind. The heat release, Landsea wrote, “is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes.” The entire human race in 2011 used about a third of the energy present in an average hurricane. So bombing a hurricane might be about as effective as trying to stop a speeding Buick with a feather. (livescience).
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Stopping a hurricane with a nuclear bomb is impossible. The fact that there are a lot of places in the ocean that have the potential to cause hurricane; may be thousands.
But, theoretically I believe science is capable of controlling the tornadoes or hurricanes.
Based on very accurate observations of the tornadoes revealed the place of started are always away from the hustle of the big cities and from the forest. What often happens is that the tornadoes started from a vast and lonely place. There is absence of evidence tornadoes started out from the big cities in the world or from the forest. If scientists predicted the tornadoes started from the big cities; it may be can’t happen; but why?
It can be expected that tornadoes or hurricanes can’t happen when they are disturbed with noise or sound waves. This one is a feasible alternative which is less of risk and its impact to the environment. But, we need a lot of research on it. May be we can’t stop it, but we can reduce it.
Now let’s see how tornadoes or hurricanes begin.
How hurricane starts
Tornadoes are among the most violent storms experienced on earth. Although no two tornadoes are the same, they need certain condition to form, in particular intense or unseasonable heat. When the warm, moist air meets cold dry air, it explodes upwards puncturing the layer above. A thunder cloud may begin to build. The storm quickly develops; there may be rain, thunder and lightning. Upward movement of air can become very rapid. Winds from different directions cause it to rotate.
Hurricane or typhoon starts when there is cluster of air over warm ocean water or cluster of warm air. Simply put, above the warm water in the ocean there is occur the cluster of warm air. It is similar with tornados; there is cluster of warm air over land. The cluster of warm air going up and causes air flows from around it and encounter; then a group of storms that begin to rotate. Let’s see animated guide: Tornadoes and Hurricanes.
We can draw a conclusion as a hypothesis, both of the tornadoes and hurricanes they need certain conditions to form; the cluster of warm air explodes upwards and winds from different directions cause it to rotate. Both of tornadoes and hurricanes started from a vast and lonely place.
Winds from different directions cause it to rotate
It can be predicted that both of the tornadoes and hurricanes can’t happen when they are disturbed with noise or sound waves. It looks like a ‘crazy idea’, but let’s looks at the background of science that supports it.
Sound Resonance and Natural Resonant Frequency
All objects have a natural frequency or group of frequencies at which they like to vibrate. Some objects vibrate or ring at a single natural frequency, while others have many “modes” of vibration and can vibrate at any or all of those modes of vibration. A flute or radio antenna tends to vibrate at a single frequency. Other objects, say for example a pencil, will vibrate in many modes, giving it the distinctive sound of a pencil. Some objects, like the string of a guitar, have a number of modes of vibrations that are all mathematically related, as Pythagoras discovered. A guitar string, with its related modes will sound more “musical” than a metal plate, which has unrelated vibration modes thereby making it sound more annoying and unmusical.
Theoretically, science can reduce the strength of tornadoes and hurricanes. The basic concept is sound resonance.
The basic concept of the mechanism can be explained as follows: It is assumed that a cluster of warm air over the ocean or land is an object just like a glass. As an object, it has natural frequency of vibration. If we sing a song of the same frequency as a glass, the glass will be vibrate. This event is called resonance. The sound of very loud can cause the glass to resonate so strongly that it breaks. So, the resonance of the object come vibrate an object when another object nearby is vibrated.
That is the fundamental concepts of the mechanism to stop or to reduce the hurricane and tornadoes.
When the singer’s voice coincides with the glass’s amplitude, frequency, pitch, the glass is said to be in RESONANCE with the Singer’s voice making it vibrate more violently until it cracks or breaks- Image from Quora.
The windmills bamboo on the rice field is the traditional instrument that can be used to reduce the ‘Puting Beliung’ or tornadoes. The windmill is very cheap and made of bamboo; but very useful. Originally the windmills of bamboo with noise/sound on the rice fields were used to repel birds, but it can be used to “repel” Puting Beliung.
Windmills bamboo on the rice field-Image from appnationconference
It can be made using the electric machines as shown on the figure below.
The next problem is how to make it in the vast ocean? It has been said in the previous discussion that we need a lot of research on it. We believe that scientists are able to find a solution in order the earth does not rebel.
