Handymancopy
(Registered User)
Thu Jul 19 2018 10:55 AM
Read an Interesting article. Do you think the Salt Sink Theory could work?

REad an article on Medium about the Salt Sink Theory and I wanted to know from you guys if we can actually use it to prevent hurricanes from forming. If it does actually work, why haven't it been applied. Your thoughts and comments, please.
https://medium.com/@tomcartney/the-power...pe-6ff3c2956179


cieldumort
(Moderator)
Sun Aug 05 2018 03:00 PM
Re: Read an Interesting article. Do you think the Salt Sink Theory could work?

Thought this interesting topic deserves some discussion. I've seen this before (as well as different versions of it - using other technology to disrupt SSTs ahead of tropical cyclones).

Personally, I think it could work, but with a great many known, unknown and known unknown unintended consequences. Hurricanes are part of the natural order of the earth's climate system. They pull heat and moisture from the equatorial regions and send them to higher latitudes. This has gone on, one could assume, ever since we first had warmer oceans near the equator and colder oceans at the poles.


Doombot!
(Weather Guru)
Sun Aug 05 2018 03:24 PM
Re: Read an Interesting article. Do you think the Salt Sink Theory could work?

A couple thoughts that mostly echo the one above.

1. Disrupting ocean currents and tempatures is not only hard, but dangerous. We have no idea what the concequences would be, but from our collective experience, when we can modify nature, it usually goes poorly.

2. We need Hurricanes. Strong ones. They're massive heat engines that convert heat into energy. The more Hurricanes, the slower global warming will progress. The big key would be to figure out how to significantly weaken, or completely dissipate the storm just before landfall.



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