Question about Reducing the strength of a Hurricane

[ShilohCane]

I have been thinking about ways to reduce the strength of a hurricane. Yes, I know I will be made fun of for this but I got to ask.

What I was thinking of was a way to pull up cold water from 30-90 feet below the surface. Since I am a scuba diver I know thermal layers are even under warm surface water. I read in New Orleans when they were draining the city they had a 70 inch in diameter pipe that pumped over one million gallons a minute. What if we had a large number ( ie. 40,000 ) devices that were radio controlled tubes that had diesel powered pumps that were like hollow submarines. These tubes could move like a submarine and be sent to stay in front of the Hurricane and pump up cold water to the surface. If it lower the surface temperature if could reduce the power of the hurricane to some degree. I don't think it could destroy the hurricane but it would disrupt the surface temperature if we had enough of them in front of the path of the hurricane. Since they are radio controlled they could move under water just below the surface to get back in front of the hurricane. They would have ballast tanks for flotation just like submarines but are mainly a hollow pipe for pumping water.

When the water is being pumped up it would need a way to spread the cold water out to a large area. Even if the cold water sinks it would cool the surface temperature. This is where I'm not sure the best way to do this. Maybe a large pipe the goes just below the surface with lots of holes to distribute the colder water to a larger area. Maybe it's as simple as just pushing million of gallons of hot surface water down 60 feet and just be a egg beater. Is this plausible?

[vbhoutex]

As much as I would like to see Hurricanes tamed we can't do it. They are heat transfer machines set up by mother nature to transfer heat out of the tropics to more northern climes. If we stopped this it would tip the balance Mother Nature is seeking.

BTW, your idea is a very novel one and one of the most doable(in some ways)that I have ever come across. I credit you for very creative thinking.

But, my message is DON'T MESS WITH MOTHER NATURE!!! She'll just get madder!!!

[MysticOne]

Very Interesting Theory!!

[aerojad]

Yeah, if you want a great example why we shouldn't touch hurricane strength look out west at the massive fires that happen every year. Didn't always happen like that until we decided it'd be a great idea to put out every fire for a good 40 years. Now we can't control the explosion in fires.

Controlling hurricanes would probably give us a similar amount of time of good, but eventually that energy is going to need to be released and... god... could you imagine stormes 100x worse than what we have now?

[Regit]

Hey, it could work. The trouble with artificially weakening hurricanes has never been the science, it's been the politics.

A lot of people think that we've never figured out a way to weaken hurricanes and this is why we don't do it. However, the US did indeed try to weaken some storms about 30-40 years ago. The two storms that were sprayed by plane did weaken immediately after. With only two storms, it's impossible to know whether correlation implied causation, but the results were at least promising.

The US then took harsh criticism from almost every other Atlantic nation because throwing off the balance in the tropics would, in theory, change the rain supply of these agriculturally dependent areas. Many of these areas depend on landfalling storms to water their crops. After nearly creating an international incident (in which the Soviet Union surely would have become involved), the US permanently halted further testing.

[f5]

Warmer Oceans=CAT 5 and we saw enough this year as it is

[thunderchief]

a hurricane mixes up the the oceans plenty on its own, and unless it sits in one spot for days, this upwelling has minimal effect. And hurricane waves are alot stronger than our pumps. Hurricanes release energy greater than many nuclear weapons... lets face it, theres no stoping that.

[dolebot_Broward_NW]

large number ( ie. 40,000 ) devices that were radio controlled

Theres your first problem - coordinating 40,000 frequencies to use. In order to run like an RC plane (that has upwards of 6 channels), you need at least 50khz bandwidth and 100khz spacing. So you would need to use almost 4,000 mhz of bandwidth in order to remotely control 40,000 devices. Unfortunately that is almost our entire radio spectrum, and people already use it. Besides, whats going to control the devices, 40,000 people? Your going to get a medium sized city worth of little sub-pump drivers?

Since they are radio controlled they could move under water just below the surface to get back in front of the hurricane

Nope. Radio waves barely penetrate the water. Only VLF does this with any kind of reliability - and there is only a few hundred khz of that. And yes, militaries actually use those precious few khz. Also the diesel engines would quickly starve as they suffocated for air under water. You need an electric locomotion system as well to submerge. Diesels don't run underwater.

Interesting idea, but unfortunately it has some serious flaws in execution.

[ShilohCane]

large number ( ie. 40,000 ) devices that were radio controlled

Theres your first problem - coordinating 40,000 frequencies to use.

Nope. Radio waves barely penetrate the water.

Both are simple to engineer. Let's concentrate only on the idea of the cold water to cool the surface water for reducing the hurricane power. If that doesn't work then it is a moot point.

Each Tube would have a on-board navigation computer that would handle basic movement between waypoints to the GPS point in the ocean. These diesel powered Tube-Pumps are similar in some limited ways to WWII diesel submarines, each would have a snorkel for air and a radio antenna. The snorkel & radio antenna would always be above water. Each tube would have unique number that only takes commands and acted on it's unique waypoint move commands and pumping orders. Again don't get hung up on simple engineering of the Tube-Pumps. Focus on the idea of using cold water to cool surface water.

[ChaserUK]

bottom line is you cannot intefere with the earths natural heat balancing process.

[kranki]

On the news about a week ago was a company in Miami which produces a powder to gel. They want to seed the clouds over the ocean with their powder. When it comes in contact with water in the clouds, it forms a gel that would then plummet into the ocean. Salt water breaks down the gel and supposedly the whole thing is bio ok. Per the news on this, they were testing it to see if it performs as stated.

I believe that this was on a Miami channel, but it might have been Fox News. Just, don't remember.

Anyway, I believe what several here believe. Mother Nature created hurricanes for a reason. Until we can correct all the reasons, we shouldn't mess with it. But it is fun/mentally stimulating trying to figure out the solutions. Keep thinking about it.