In 1992, Hurricane Andrew caused about $26.5 billion in damages … it was the most destructive storm on record.
Ross Hoffman of Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc. has proposed the establishment of a global weather control system to lessen the damage caused by these large storms.
Funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), and described at this link, the proposal is complex. Full implementation of the proposed architecture is many years away, and requires major advances in many disciplines. However, the key to the approach lies in introducing a small perturbation or disturbance into a developing weather pattern at just the right time and place, in order disrupt the storm’s development, and thus mitigate the results.
Arthur C. Clarke, the well-known futurist and science fiction writer, suggested the methodology of applying a small amount of energy in order to control a much larger amount of energy. “The energy…[of the perturbation is] trifling compared with that of the smallest storm; but so is the energy of the falling stone that triggers an avalanche, or the single neutron that starts a chain reaction”.
In practical terms, these perturbations could be input to the (weather) system through devices such as the following:
– Very-large-scale fans to change atmospheric momentum
– Selective heating of the atmosphere via eg orbiting microwave generators
– Selective cooling of the atmosphere by eg orbiting solar reflectors
– High-yield explosives to disrupt a storm’s circulation patterns
– Dry ice to chill the sea water beneath a hurricane to below 80? F
– Desiccants to dehydrate the storm
– Chemically-induced endothermic reaction to cool the storm
As noted above, technological constraints mean that weather control systems are years away. And if legal, political, ethical, moral and monetary issues are factored in, then it will be even longer before we see controlled weather.
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Not to mention, there’s the possibilit of human error causing even worse weather.
Yeah, I can imagine Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park having a nervous breakdown over this.
Yeah, the idea of humans controlling the weather does seem fraught with unintended consequence–and not just worse weather.