Tiny wind machines to cancel out tornadoes?
Feb 07, 2010
in
Tornado Questions
Hypothetically speaking, couldn’t we detect tornadoes with satellites when it starts to grow, then take a bunch of little wind machines to spin the air in the opposite direction to cancel them out?
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3 comments
Michel Verheughe on February 7, 2010 at 4:36 am
What the answer above is about is Bill Gate’s idea to prevent hurricanes in the Atlantic by pumping cold water from the deep to the surface, thus keeping it under 27 C, which is the temperature over which we observe hurricanes happening. But that’s a pipe dream.
Tornadoes have nothing to do with hurricanes and preventing tornadoes by mechanical devices will be very difficult. Here is why:
A tornado is born from the shear winds found under very strong convections often called meta-cells. They are the result of very unstable air: hot under and cold above. This cause a lot of air movement, some going up, and some going down, as micro-bursts are. Along that, wind goes in different directions and at their boundary, a spinning occur between what goes in one direction and what goes in the other. It is very similar to the eddies produced by the wing of an aircraft where the under-pressured air from above the wing meets the over-pressured one from under. If I am to take off in my little aircraft right after a big airliner, those eddies will probably turn me around like a pancake!
As it happens under a super-cell, that spinning is is sucked upward by that convection and it is only when it comes to a nearly vertical position that its base is on the ground, sucking debris and moisture, that it becomes visible. At that time, it is too late for us to do anything to prevent its formation.
It should then be prevented before it is visible but how? You mention satellite images but satellites are way above everything and they can’t detect a tornado that is under a big cumulonimbus cloud formation.
Doppler radar could be used as the difference of speed in the air is indicated by the doppler effect of the returning signal. But then, you would need so many radars in so many places and even so, how would you have you "tiny wind machines" to affect the shear winds that occur high above us?
I am afraid that your idea is not possible to be put in practice. Today, landing or departing aircraft must be separated by at least 4.5 nautical miles to avoid their turbulence. In many airports, they do everything to reduce that delay. If a pilot lands his aircraft and is told to e.g. "exit at Bravo three" and he misses it, exiting the active runway at the next taxiway, he will have a lot of problems because he will delay the landing traffic by perhaps half a minute. That’s how tight the traffic is today at our main airports. If they could prevent that with "tiny wind machines," they would already have done it.
Eye_Heart_CountryMusic on February 7, 2010 at 4:36 am
But wouldn’t that cause the tornado to head to a different part of the world?
But yeah there are such machines. I saw on tv, scientists came up with this tunnel thing that you put in the ocean. So when a hurricane is formed and grow with the ocean, the water temperature mixes up and neutralizes the hurricane. It’s expensive to make but it cost less to set up than cleaning after one. But this is for hurricanes. I have no idea what the difference between the two are.
Water on February 7, 2010 at 4:36 am
To be bluntly honest, the answer is no.
A typical, small tornadic thunderstorm is generating energy in the order of 100 million horse power. If you think that a few wind machines trying to blow in the opposite direction cancels out the power of a tornado, well, that is just not realistic. Even big wind machines would have no effect on the outcome either. Nature is just to big and there is no reasonable method man has to manipulate any of the parameters.