Project StormFury: An Attempt to modify a Hurricane

We have seen several thread here on ATS about weather modification or the use of atomic devices to disapate a hurricane, but scientists are saying that it simply will not work. But aside from that revelation, it did mention a Project StormFury that had mixed results. Cloud seeding was used to alter rain patterns and in some cases slowed winds by 30% Wonder if its time to look at it again?

DENVER - It sounds like a great idea: Let's just blast hurricanes like Rita and Katrina out of the sky before they hurt more people. Or, at least weaken the storms and steer them away from cities.

Atmospheric scientists say it's wishful thinking that we could destroy or even influence something as huge and powerful as a hurricane. They abandoned such a quest years ago after more than two decades of inconclusive government-sponsored research.

Private companies have conducted tests on a much smaller scale, but have made little progress despite initially claiming to erase storm clouds from the atmosphere.

"It would be like trying to move a car with a pea shooter," said hydrometeorologist Matthew Kelsch of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "The amount of energy involved in a hurricane is far greater that anything we're going to impart to it."

The federal government's hurricane modification program was called Project Stormfury. The idea was raised during the Eisenhower administration after several major storms hit the East Coast in the mid-1950s, killing 749 people and causing billions in damages.
Project Stormfury

[edit on 9/23/05 by FredT]

[edit on 9/23/05 by FredT]

damn they give up easily....

2 decades of studies only? This should be an ongoing thing. Who knows if some brilliant new idea might actually work.

I've been wondering myself, if there was any way to cool water temps in the hurricane's path, take the fuel away and you have less intense storms...exactly how you do this though, is what I would like scientists to continue to ponder especially since they're predicting more intense storms in the future.

That 30% weakening was not caused by human intervention, it just so happened the storm weakened while people were out there doing those experiments AND that was just one storm, there were many that strengthened or remain the same while the seeding was going on.

With the best chemicals man has it would take a full scale military operation to have a chance of reducing the power of a hurricane artificially. The number most meteorologists agree on is at least 20 747's full of the seeding chemical an hour is how much in theory it would take for an effect.

It also goes against the playing with nature/God and there are likely consequences to modifying a hurricane. Hurricanes are important because they take energy from the tropics and and bring it to the mid-lattitudes, if we could destroy a hurricane we would be allowing a lot of energy to be left behind and this would only add up to fuel an even bigger hurricane.

If we could cool down a large area of water than some other large area would have to get warmer to balance things out. Hurricanes are the natural way of cooling down large areas of water.

The bottom line is hurricanes happen for a reason and the costs to attempt to modify one storm is outrageous and the negative unpredictable side effects are a given.