I was doing some reading on project storm fury when I came to an interesting conclusion. You see, I go to the library everyday at school and read the only in depth book on meteorology that they have: a meteorological compendium that is nearly half a century old. In the text, they talk about the “great promise of seeding”, which is funny in hindsight. I had always thought that the project was a failure, but that is actually far from the truth. During the many flights in the program, a vast knowledge was gained about the eyewall structure of mature hurricanes. It is my understanding that the Storm Fury was canceled for budget and practicality reasons… not because it was proven that the seeding was a failure.
Even if the seeding was only mimicking what hurricanes do naturally all the time, it still cannot be denied that the very process weakens the storm (think about Dennis just before landfall). Since force increases exponentially with wind speed, carefully timed would prove to be advantageous. During the project, I know that a seeding candidate had to be a mature hurricane, and also one that would not hit land any time in the near future (the public thought that the seeding somehow changed the course of the storm). However, at the time, during the 60’s,70’s, and 80’s, we were experiencing a lull in hurricane activity.
Now, with an increase in intense hurricanes and hurricanes in general, along with a more advanced understanding of tropical cyclone dynamics, would it be practical to resume the project? Or am I missing something and was the project truly a “failure” from concept (ie, did it only look like it was working, when a hurricane underwent a cerc shortly after)?
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cheers
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