Fla. Inventor Believes He Can Suck Power Out of Hurricanes
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2003 12:22 pm
Despite years of experiments by the federal government and backyard inventors, nothing has worked so far to stop a hurricane from barreling ashore.
But one Florida inventor hasn't stopped trying.
Businessman Peter Cordani has spent four years researching a way to drop absorbent particles into the eye of a storm to disrupt its spin and suck out the moisture.
He admits he won't stop any hurricanes, but he believes he could save cities and residents from suffering billions of dollars worth of damage by gutting the storm's strength.
The U.S. government's Hurricane Research Division studied Cordani's plan and dismissed it as one of the better ideas they've received.
Many of those ideas, including Cordani's, are unrealistic because of their huge expense or because they lack a basic understanding of meteorology or science, said Hugh Willoughby, a research professor with the International Hurricane Center at Florida International University.
Other ideas are just plain crazy, like the one that suggested blasting a hurricane with a nuclear weapon.
"The answer to that is a hurricane is bad enough without making it radioactive," said Willoughby, who reviewed some of the proposed inventions when he was director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's hurricane research division. "The only benefit would be is it would glow in the dark and it would be a lot easier to see at night."
The federal government tried its own inventions to weaken hurricanes but gave up in the 1960s. Meteorologists now turn their attention to better understanding the dynamics of the storms, rather than trying to stop them.
Researchers have spent years studying what makes hurricanes grow and move, such as ocean temperatures, barometric pressure, and convection. The data has helped them assemble a more accurate model that will allow meteorologists to look ahead five days when forecasting the track of hurricanes this year, extending the three-day forecasts used since 1964. The hurricane season began Sunday.
The extra two days will allow more time for evacuations and help safeguard against huge property losses. The U.S. Navy, for example, requires 96 hours to get its fleet out to sea.
Still, Cordani insists beating the hurricane is the only way to truly conquer the storm's devastation.
Researchers at his company, Dyn-O-Mat, tested their absorbent powder on a thunderstorm cloud two years ago. A television station's weather radar confirmed the cloud lost moisture after an airplane dropped $40,000 worth of Dyn-O-Gel granules into the cloud.
The company's now trying to develop a powder that's thousands of times more absorbent so it can be tested on a grander scale -- in the eye of a hurricane.
"We're trying to break the momentum of that spin, of that rotation," said Cordani, whose company develops mats that absorb oil and other products. "We know the product can do that."
But Willoughby said the cloud experiment proves little because clouds regularly disappear on their own. He said huge amounts of the powder would be needed to make even a minor change in a hurricane.
"It would really take all of the military heavy-lift aircraft that the United States has to carry the material, and there would be a major air traffic control problem around the eye," Willoughby said. "The big danger would be a major collision, and it would be hugely expensive for not much benefit."
Willoughby said it's possible, though unlikely, that a compound could be developed to tackle large storms.
Cordani said in the future, his powder will do just that.
"These are things that are definitely needed for the world."
But one Florida inventor hasn't stopped trying.
Businessman Peter Cordani has spent four years researching a way to drop absorbent particles into the eye of a storm to disrupt its spin and suck out the moisture.
He admits he won't stop any hurricanes, but he believes he could save cities and residents from suffering billions of dollars worth of damage by gutting the storm's strength.
The U.S. government's Hurricane Research Division studied Cordani's plan and dismissed it as one of the better ideas they've received.
Many of those ideas, including Cordani's, are unrealistic because of their huge expense or because they lack a basic understanding of meteorology or science, said Hugh Willoughby, a research professor with the International Hurricane Center at Florida International University.
Other ideas are just plain crazy, like the one that suggested blasting a hurricane with a nuclear weapon.
"The answer to that is a hurricane is bad enough without making it radioactive," said Willoughby, who reviewed some of the proposed inventions when he was director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's hurricane research division. "The only benefit would be is it would glow in the dark and it would be a lot easier to see at night."
The federal government tried its own inventions to weaken hurricanes but gave up in the 1960s. Meteorologists now turn their attention to better understanding the dynamics of the storms, rather than trying to stop them.
Researchers have spent years studying what makes hurricanes grow and move, such as ocean temperatures, barometric pressure, and convection. The data has helped them assemble a more accurate model that will allow meteorologists to look ahead five days when forecasting the track of hurricanes this year, extending the three-day forecasts used since 1964. The hurricane season began Sunday.
The extra two days will allow more time for evacuations and help safeguard against huge property losses. The U.S. Navy, for example, requires 96 hours to get its fleet out to sea.
Still, Cordani insists beating the hurricane is the only way to truly conquer the storm's devastation.
Researchers at his company, Dyn-O-Mat, tested their absorbent powder on a thunderstorm cloud two years ago. A television station's weather radar confirmed the cloud lost moisture after an airplane dropped $40,000 worth of Dyn-O-Gel granules into the cloud.
The company's now trying to develop a powder that's thousands of times more absorbent so it can be tested on a grander scale -- in the eye of a hurricane.
"We're trying to break the momentum of that spin, of that rotation," said Cordani, whose company develops mats that absorb oil and other products. "We know the product can do that."
But Willoughby said the cloud experiment proves little because clouds regularly disappear on their own. He said huge amounts of the powder would be needed to make even a minor change in a hurricane.
"It would really take all of the military heavy-lift aircraft that the United States has to carry the material, and there would be a major air traffic control problem around the eye," Willoughby said. "The big danger would be a major collision, and it would be hugely expensive for not much benefit."
Willoughby said it's possible, though unlikely, that a compound could be developed to tackle large storms.
Cordani said in the future, his powder will do just that.
"These are things that are definitely needed for the world."
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