What if

[Planetwatcher]

I wouldn't actually wish for this but from time to time have wondered.
Other then a lot of radiation spread, what would happen if a large nuclear bomb were detonated inside a major hurricane?

Would it totally blow the hurricane apart? or might it serve to strenghen it all the more?

[Wolverine]

From this Q&A (http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/wfaqhurm.htm):

Q: Wouldn't a huge bomb weaken a hurricane? If they are worried about radioactivity, they could use powerful fuel-oil bombs.

A: A bomb or bombs would be a dead end since the amount of energy a hurricane is releasing and the size of its circulation would make any bomb, including the largest nuclear bomb, seem more futile than trying to stop a charging elephant by throwing a ping-pong ball at it.
...
Until recent years, many people suggested using nuclear bombs. But, doing that would create a hurricane with the danger of radioactivity as well as wind and storm surge.

[Enzp]

And it is a matter of scale. Look at a large hurricane, it is hundreds of miles across. Now look at our largest hydrogen bombs, they vaporize things for a mile or two around.

It would be as effective as putting a penny on a railroad track hoping to affect the train. You do get nice smashed pennies though.

Has anyone done the ping png ball/elephant research? I can report that the train is not affected by the penny in a measurable way. Within the limits of my instruments.

[astromark]

The ocean serge is created by the extrem low presure at the core of the storm. The violent wind speed is driven by this also.Look at the science. Fast air, lower presure. A wing.
Detonating a very large nuc bomb would not change that at all. It might even make it stronger. A dramatic change in air presure would help stop the storm. How do we do that then? What do we have that could increas air presure enough to stop a hurican. ?

[Jens]

Couldn't we just get a lot of people to go out and blow air (or use fans) to blow the air in the opposite direction? :-)

I think building strong, perhaps semi-underground homes, would be a more feasible solution.

[Planetwatcher]

Well a little more varity then I expected. Thanks.
Guess it would make since that a nuclear device wouldn't be too effective given most hurricane's eye alone is 20 or more miles wide.
But Wilma at one point was only 2 mile wide, just before the eyewall restructured. Now what if the eye was that small with a large nuke going off?

[suntrack2]

in my opinion it will jointly work, and the devastation may be rise means the devastation will be the double and the power of the hurricane will also be double, later the radiation will create great hazards, and post hurricane will creat a great health,wealth and many other problems, to weaken the power of the hurricane very leastly defuse the pressure of the hurricane, am i correct planetwatcher !

[hhEb09'1]

What do we have that could increas air presure enough to stop a hurican. ?detonate the bomb at high altitude?

[astromark]

Come on you physics buffs. . . . might this work?
Can we do this without thr radiation?

[Kaptain K]

The energy released by a hurricane is on the order of megatons per second. A nuke would have less effect on a hurricane than a single stick of dynamite on a tornado.

[pumpkinpie]

Has anyone done the ping png ball/elephant research?

Sorry, not me. I've never thrown a ping pong ball at an elephant. :lol: And I don't think my local zoo would be very happy with me if I tried it!

[Enzp]

The eye is not the storm, it is merely the center of it. The storm system is not 2 miles across.

[Ken G]

And keep in mind the concept of conservation of angular momentum. Even if you could disrupt the eye briefly, all that angular momentum is still in the air somewhere, and it will return to re-form the eye in a matter of minutes or less.

[eburacum45]

To cut down on hurricanes the amount of energy in the Gulf of Mexico seawater needs to be reduced -

if we could only extract and use the excess heat from this enclosed sea we could solve our energy problems and reduce cyclone formation (in theory).

Hmm- the total area of the Gulf is about 1.5 million square kilometers; if we put (say) a hundred OTEC generators

http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/6301/otec3ev.th.jpg (http://img416.imageshack.us/my.php?image=otec3ev.jpg)



in each square kiometer we might reduce the temperature enough to reduce the incidence of hurricanes.

That is 1500 million devices; anyone want to put the money up front?

[Planetwatcher]

Explosions create a lot of percussion preasure. But also Ken G and Kaptain K are correct too. The trick would be to release a large amount of very high air pressure and sustain it for a period of time. :doh:

That would take a lot of very big air tanks. :think:

[Jens]

To cut down on hurricanes the amount of energy in the Gulf of Mexico seawater needs to be reduced

One way to do that would be to reduce the amount of water in the Gulf of Mexico. How about this: build a big dam running from Florida to Panama, and drain all the water out of the Gulf of Mexico, and transport it to the Sahara desert to create forests there. And of course, get the heck out of the way when that dam breaks.

[Enzp]

Those salt water sand forests should be interesting.

So we convert Aruba to maybe downhill ski slopes?

[jkmccrann]

One way to do that would be to reduce the amount of water in the Gulf of Mexico. How about this: build a big dam running from Florida to Panama, and drain all the water out of the Gulf of Mexico, and transport it to the Sahara desert to create forests there. And of course, get the heck out of the way when that dam breaks.


Interesting idea, but I wouldn't want to be in New Orleans when the dam broke, or Houston for that matter. I always thought it'd be the weirdest thing to row a boat past your host riding the waters of a flood, something I hope though that I'll never have to do, given I live on a fairly high hill if that ever happens, I think we'll all be in trouble.

[Metricyard]

Seems like a simple solution, drain the oceans. Problem solved!

[TheBlackCat]

Or freeze them solid!

[cran]

or figure out how to generate, and steer, anticyclones ...?

[astromark]

Now you've done it. Anticyclones, Hurricans. Are they not the same thing. Just the direction of spin is different. Is it that simple? Starting to sound like a lot of hot air.

[cran]

Not simple by any means ... but anticyclones are not only spinning in the opposite direction; they are intense high pressure systems ... opposite to the intense low pressure systems ... perhaps they might cancel each other ...?

[Planetwatcher]

Hey hey how bout this?:naughty:

We get 4 nuclear powered submarines with a whole bunch of copper condenser coil, (like the kind used for refridgerator freezers)
stretch out that coil and position themselves several miles apart in a grid formation, get underneath the eye of the hurricane, and power up them coils to cool down the water feeding the hurricane. :think: :wall:

[publiusr]

Now you've done it. Anticyclones, Hurricans. Are they not the same thing. Just the direction of spin is different. Is it that simple? Starting to sound like a lot of hot air.

South of the equator a high does spin counter-clokwise, and lows (tropical storms spin clockwise).

An anti-cyclone here is a High, and it spins clockwise, where Lows here spin clockwise IIRC.

There is talk of hurricane modification here:
www.spaceislandgroup.com

Using microwaves. I'd also fly B-52s with silver nitrate out of the Canaries to keep waves broken up and keep convection scattered so it won't spin up to start with.

[hhEb09'1]

I thought the reason they switched to male and female names was to confuse their orientation. Guess it didn't work.

[Lord Jubjub]

All hurricanes HAVE an anticyclone high pressure area above the eye. Look carefully at a video of a rotating storm and you can actually see rotation of the lower clouds in the opposite direction of the higher clouds.

What you really want above a hurricane is a LOW pressure system or wind shear (winds blowing in the opposite direction of the hurricanes spin). Exploding a large nuclear device to one side of the eye might produce enough shear to disintegrate a tropical depression or a weak storm. It would do nothing to any category of hurricane.