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While climate scientists differ if hurricanes are more intense from global warming, all agree the damages caused by the 2005 Gulf of Mexico hurricanes could portend tremendous damages and loss of life from future large storms. Is any technology able to downsize these powerful storms? Given that hurricane tracking forecasts are accurate only a few days ahead, could the technology be correctly positioned soon enough? Would the storm veer off, hitting a different region? Hurricane intensity is strongly linked to upper ocean heat content. Mathematical models show Atmocean’s upwelling system pre-cools the upper ocean by a few degrees C., reducing the evaporative energy to the hurricane, and lowering winds up to 15%. Since hurricane damages are proportional to the cube of windspeed, losses could be reduced up to 40%. By relying on wave kinetic energy, the system naturally self-calibrates due to the much larger waves generated by a storm. Atmocean’s upwelling arrays would be positioned beginning at 200 meters depth along the Gulf and East coast, and extend seaward in a band about 150 km wide, as seen above. If Atmocean arrays had been in position ten years ago, our storm track analysis shows they could have intercepted and quite likely reduced the intensity of 84% of US-landfalling hurricanes. |
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