I don't think it's fair to say that we couldn't increase the number of hurricanes. I'm sure the techniques we've thought of will have counterparts which can trigger or power-up storms. A
2009/8/17 Alvia Gaskill <[email protected]> > > Most of the tropical cyclone activity is in the Pacific. We tend to focus > on the Atlantic because that's where most of us live. Stopping or reducing > Atlantic hurricanes would have only a small impact on the global heat > transfer budget. Stronger storms and storms that sit over the same area > for > longer periods of time or larger storms in size, even if the winds are > weaker would all move more water around. While most of the poleward > transport is done out in the open ocean as storms recurve northward, those > that make landfall also carry their moisture and associated heat energy > poleward as they are caught up in weather fronts. > > It was discussed here recently that reducing or eliminating hurricanes > would > cause more winter storms and implied this might be a negative consequence > of > doing so. If true, this would show that some of the energy that the > hurricanes would have taken poleward winds up there anyway in the form of > other weather systems as the overall ocean atmosphere system attempts to > redistribute tropical heat accumulated during the summer. If the same > amount of heat energy is moved this way as by the hurricanes, then > eliminating hurricanes would not have adverse consequences. In other > words, > would you rather be hit in the face with a baseball bat 6 times a year > (landfalling hurricanes) or have marshmallows thrown at you every week from > November through March (winter storms)? Further investigation of this > would > be needed to quantity the relative risks if hurricane mitigation is > possible. > > Only about 10% of all tropical systems form below the equator and most of > these are relatively weak storms. Note also that most of the land area is > above the equator, so the two hemispheres have different responses to the > same heat energy inputs. The impact of the variable heat transfer from > tropical systems on hemispheric climate change has not been determined, but > can be expected to be a minor contributor as they still only affect a very > small percentage of the overall ocean. There would be no way to increase > the number of such storms. The number of waves that emerge from Africa > during the Cape Verde season (late June to early October) seems to be fixed > at about one every 3 days and intensification is dependent on many factors. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "dsw_s" <[email protected]> > To: "geoengineering" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 6:06 AM > Subject: [geo] Re: Hawaii Saved by Shear Luck Again > > > > Do stronger storms mix water deeper? (It seems obvious that they > would, but lots of things seem obvious and aren't true.) If so, it > would seem that having more weak storms would re-churn the same > thinner layer of water more often, transporting less heat toward the > poles than if fewer big storms mix the heat deeply. > > There's also the strong asymmetry between northern and southern > hemispheres. It may be that decreasing storms in one hemisphere and > letting them increase in the other could help with global sea level > and global average temperature. > > On Aug 17, 3:24 am, Mike MacCracken <[email protected]> wrote: > > In fact, Kerry Emanuel and students has a hypothesis that increased > > tropical > > cyclone activity (so number and or power and/or duration) and consequent > > vertical stirring of low latitude ocean areas is essential to providing > > the > > extra meridional energy flux to explain how the Cretaceous can be so warm > > in > > the polar regions without the tropics being too much warmer. > > > > Mike MacCracken > > > > On 8/16/09 2:38 AM, "global_frozing" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > Will it be right to say that hurricane is the process of moving heat > > > up and out, so in fact the hurricane mitigation will work for global > > > warming, not against it? > > > If it so then better try to provoke the typhoons in the right places > > > than try to stop them or weaken them. > > > > > Aleksey > > > globalfrozing.com > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
