Hi! It was in December 2010 that in this group John Nissen and Veli Albert Kallio, for the first time discussed the S. Zhou and Peter Flynn paper [1], which aims at restoring the northern THC with numerous barge-operated *ice making machines and snow canons.*
In the paper the clear goal is to increase the volume of downwelling currents. As downwelling ocean currents carry carbon into the deep ocean (the solubility pump), the atmospheric CO2 will be reduced. The Zhou and Flynn preferred method to do so is by pumping ocean water onto the surface of sea ice during the winter. As a thicker ice is formed in winter, the thickening of the sea ice might slow melt in spring and more sunlight reflection will occur during the following season. The albedo modification cooling effects were not evaluated in this paper but the title of the post in the geo group was “*Seeding Sea Ice - New SRM Method*”. But, as the process descried by Prof. Flynn requires additional water to be cooled by the cold winter atmosphere (air) to make it sink to the ocean deep, the atmosphere (air) is momentarily warmed. But then, the cooling will be by radiation into space (hot air rises, cold air sinks). The result is IR radiation out to space. Heat is removed from the ocean and escapes into the outer space. So the 3 effects of the Zhou and Flynn process are: it removes CO2 for the atmosphere (CDR); it increases sea ice albedo (direct immediate cooling and shortwave radiation reflection or SRM); and heat transfer occurs from the ocean to the space (longwave radiation removal or a form of Earth radiation management ERM). Denis Bonnelle, a former contributor to this geoengineering group, has had a very interesting interpretation of other phenomenon’s occurring during the Zhou and Flynn process. According to Denis Bonnelle [2], ice is a very good insulator. So when a thin layer of sea ice is formed, even if the air above becomes quite cold, the thickening of the sea ice is very slow by the underneath warmer water. So the Zhou and Flynn process is a sort of “*thermal shortcut*”, as by putting cold sea water on the top of the sea ice layer it allows it to freeze and accelerates the thickening of the sea ice by the top and not by the bottom as it occurs naturally. Denis Bonnelle also gave a similar image about the Earth and the GHG problem. GHGs act as very good insulators that prevent heat to escape from the atmosphere to the outer space. Generally for a house or for an apartment in a building to have a good insulation you not only need a thick insulator layer, but you also need to prevent thermal bridges (by conduction process). In the case of the Earth it is the contrary: we experience global warming because the insulation is too good and too powerful. A solution to cool down the planet can be to create “(radiative) thermal bridges”, or “*thermal shortcuts*” in order to allow the heat to be evacuated. In recent posts to the group, some discussions of Prof. Flynn focus on heat pipes (two phase thermosyphons). Numerous industrial heat pipes applications exist for heat transfer. Heat pipes also act as a “*thermal shortcut*” by transferring heat from one area to another that can be quite far (for ex. a nearly 100 m long thermosyphon is used at the CERN in Geneva). For the Trans Alaska Pipeline over 124,000 thermosyphons (several m high) were installed year ago and they allow to decrease the permafrost temperatures. They remove heat from the soil and transfer it to the air during the winter and keep the ground frozen. Enormous amounts of two phase thermosyphons are currently used to prevent permafrost melting along pipelines, roads and train-rails over Alaska, Siberia, and Chinese Mongolia. Large scale use of numerous, more efficient and cheap heat-pipes can help relieve the side effects of global warming induced problems, as well as for glaciers and for the Arctic melting (think to the methane hydrates melt risk). Mochizuki and his co-workers developed the concept [3] of giant thermo-siphons to help cooling-down the Earth and to fight global warming.Very big size two phase thermosiphons can help cool down the planet by increasing longwave radiation to the outer space. This can be proposed as an Earth Radiation Management (ERM) technique. Regards Renaud de_Richter [1] http://www.springerlink.com/content/pt637l16gt5r7023/fulltext.pdf<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.springerlink.com%2Fcontent%2Fpt637l16gt5r7023%2Ffulltext.pdf&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEbaEDSLIELFEzjs5t69mcb7NF9ww> Zhou, S., & Flynn, P. C. (2005). Geoengineering downwelling ocean currents: a cost assessment. *Climatic change*, *71*(1-2), 203-220. [2] http://www.editions-ellipses.fr/product_info.php?products_id=7193 <http://www.editions-ellipses.fr/product_info.php?products_id=7193>D. Bonnelle, R. de_Richter. 21 Unusual renewable energies for the 21st century (in French: 21 énergies renouvelables insolites pour le 21ème siècle). France: Ellipses; 2010. [3] http://www.dl.begellhouse.com/download/article/5b046a6f20f5fc3e/HPST0102%20(183-204).pdf<http://www.dl.begellhouse.com/download/article/5b046a6f20f5fc3e/HPST0102%20%28183-204%29.pdf> Mochizuki, M., Nguyen, T., Mashiko, K., Saito, Y., Nguyen, T., & Wuttijumnong, V. (2010). CHALLENGES OF HEAT PIPE APPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL WARMING. *Heat Pipe Science and Technology, An International Journal*, *1* (2). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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