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Airborne sand addition to reduce hurricane strength.
Novel atmospheric impact method to combat hurricanes and tornadoes.
Tamara V. Tulaykova, John B. Cook, Paul A. Comet, Richard O. Claus, Svetlana R. Amirova, Alexandre V. Michtchenko.
Lap-Lambert, Germany, 2019, ISBN 978-620-0-30459-9.
Sand addition is here proposed to reduce high wind speed. The damping mechanism is based on the addition of sand into the hurricane vortex to produce a Stokes friction force on surfaces of all grains in the sand ensemble. Initial evaluations are presented to demonstrate the key principles and algorithm optimization to achieve high hurricane wind-speed attenuation. Calculations demonstrate that natural sand grains, with typical lognormal size distributions and average diameters from 15 to 100 μm, provide an acceptable airborne time of several hours for sand in order to obtain significant wind attenuation. The optimal options for implementation are considered based on features of particle motion. Presented calculations demonstrate that sand particles introduced into hurricanes or tornadoes can be both an effective and low cost method.
- Atmosphere, ocean, hurricane, method, climate.
In this work, the authors use first principal equations and calculations to demonstrate a new method to attenuate strong wind power as manifested in hurricanes. The proposed technology is to seed a volume of 1000 cubic meters, or greater as determined, of pre-treated hydrophobic natural sand into hurricane clouds having a high air velocity. It has been demonstrated that the sand grain ensemble lags behind the airflow; however, the high total surface area of the sand grains is sufficient to produce a Stokes friction in terms of grains/flow and to provide a relatively high attenuation effect on the rotating vortex. It was demonstrated that intermediate size particles are very efficient to be used in seeding clouds to reduce rotational velocities. Presented calculations for a natural sand ensemble with typical lognormal size distribution and average diameters dg =15 μm or 30 μm, provide an acceptable airborne time for sand to supply high frictional forces. Further, the optimal locations for sand introduction to the rotating airflow to produce high frictional forces are considered. The results indicate efficacy of this method for high altitudes, thai is equal or more 2 km, with a small radial air velocity. Also, a sufficient radial removal area is necessary, r = 60 - 100 km, to produce airborne particles with an adequate treatment time of about 6 - 12 hours. All mentioned parameters calculated on the base on the developed algorithm for sand ensemble Stokes friction, and unit-volume friction calculations from Table-1, depend on typical options in the environment. The calculated estimations of sand volume indicate that a series of meteorological rockets with sand highly suitable for the implementation of this method, although 5-7 cargo planes can also achieve an accurate cloud seeding. This technology should be applied and serves to break the hurricane power over the ocean in advance of the hurricane making landfall. The calculations demonstrate that sand particle seeding into hurricanes or tornadoes can be both an effective and low cost method.
Table of book Contents
Chapter I. Introduction
I.1. Economic basis for prevention method
I.2. Previous approaches to reduce hurricane impact
I.3. Technical background for proposed sand method
Chapter II. The analysis for airborne particles to achieve air flow attenuation
II.1. Natural sand particle movement inside air flow taking into account
ensemble lognormal size- distribution
II.2. Stokes friction forces and related attenuation due to sand
II.3. Sand ensemble erosion with respect to time inside hurricane airflow
II.4. Optimization algorithm for method implementation
Chapter III. Preliminary potential design experiments in laboratories
Chapter IV. Options for sand injection into hurricane clouds
IV.1. Airplanes
IV.2. Meteorological rockets or ship guns in the fight against hurricane
Chapter V. References
