www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html
Back to Main FAQ Page Subject: C5c) Why don't we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking the m ? During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one sh ould simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms. Apart fro m the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach negle cts the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quick ly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating e nvironmental problems. Now for a more rigorous scientific explanation of why this would not be a n effective hurricane modification technique.
amount of energy require d A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x10^13 watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanic al energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nu clear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. According to the 1993 World Alman ac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of 10^13 watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane. If we think about mechanical energy, the energy at humanity's disposal is closer to the storm's, but the task of focusing even half of the energy on a spot in the middle of a remote ocean would still be formidable. Br ute force interference with hurricanes doesn't seem promising. In addition, an explosive, even a nuclear explosive, produces a shock wav e, or pulse of high pressure, that propagates away from the site of the explosion somewhat faster than the speed of sound. Such an event doesn't raise the barometric pressure after the shock has passed because barome tric pressure in the atmosphere reflects the weight of the air above the ground. For normal atmospheric pressure, there are about ten metric ton s (1000 kilograms per ton) of air bearing down on each square meter of s urface. To change a Category 5 hurricane into a Category 2 hurricane you would have to add about a h alf ton of air for each square meter inside the eye, or a total of a bit more than half a billion (500,000,000) tons for a 20 km radius eye. It' s difficult to envision a practical way of moving that much air around. Attacking weak tropical waves or depressions before they have a chance to grow into hurricanes isn't promising either. About 80 of these disturba nces form every year in the Atlantic basin, but only about 5 become hurr icanes in a typical year. There is no way to tell in advance which ones will develop. If the energy released in a tropical disturbance were only 10% of that released in a hurricane, it's still a lot of power, so that the hurricane police would need to dim the whole world's lights many ti mes a year.
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