Waitin’ me in NASA. .
I Have to works there. .

These monsters never cease to amaze me.

Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA

Coming up next, Typhoon Westinghouse. (Did you miss that announcement about corporate sponsorship for typhoons and hurricanes? )

“”” savethesharks (05:56:30) :

3×2 (05:23:53) :Do such things leave an measurable SST trail in their wake?

Many times you can see the very “path” of “cooled” SSTs they have beaten through a region of higher SSTs just by the significant upwelling they cause via angry, roiling seas.

One of Nature’s overturn and mixing mechanisms…at work.

CHRIS
Norfolk, VA, USA “””

So how do you know it is mixing at work ? A hurricane (look at the picture) transport millions of tons of water into the atmosphere; much of it in the form of water vapor, as well as the water droplets that form the clouds b(or eventually ice crystals.

…

I think you will find that the cold trail of a hurricane is latent “heat” lost from the surface waters, and any mixing effect is rather minor.

This isn’t the best result I wanted, and it’s from a questionable source (Kerry Emanuel), but I think he’s decribing others’ research here.

I hope this link works – http://books.google.com/books?id=IHALBxIYBGMC&lpg=PA76&ots=W96grxtEgv&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q=&f=false – it should display SSTs after Edouard passed by. The text goes into details of the ocean currents induced by the wind and how it affects the base of the mixed layer on the oceans surface and brings in cold water from below.

He claims that evaporation alone would cool the surface (mixed layer?) by only 0.1C.

Trivia:
If CO2 is warming the earth’s atmosphere with just 385 ppmv., what if you send a plane across that typhoon and spray it with CO2 (dry ice). If GW is true then, would it make it bigger…or dissolve it?. “”"

Probably would; now to get down to brass tacks; the energy sucked up out of the oceans in a modest (cat 3) hurricane is about like setting off every nuke on earth once an hour.

The entire dry ice manufacturing capacity on earth isn’t nearly enough to keep loading up your plane to contend with that kind of energy.

Other than that, it is a wonderful idea.

3×2 (05:23:53) :Do such things leave an measurable SST trail in their wake?

Many times you can see the very “path” of “cooled” SSTs they have beaten through a region of higher SSTs just by the significant upwelling they cause via angry, roiling seas.

One of Nature’s overturn and mixing mechanisms…at work.

CHRIS
Norfolk, VA, USA “”"

So how do you know it is mixing at work ? A hurricane (look at the picture) transport millions of tons of water into the atmosphere; much of it in the form of water vapor, as well as the water droplets that form the clouds b(or eventually ice crystals.

That is an astronomical amount of latent heat (about 545 Cal/gm) that is ripped out of the ocean and transported into the troposphere.

Evaporating one gram of water from the ocean could drop the temperature 10 deg C for another 54.5 grams of ocean water, or 5 deg C for 109 grams of ocean water; and those are much greater temperature changes than the mixing of the surface waters could dredge up.

I think you will find that the cold trail of a hurricane is latent “heat” lost from the surface waters, and any mixing effect is rather minor.

George

I was in the eye of a Category 1 hurricane as it came ashore in southern New England almost 20 years ago. It was less than 10 miles wide and for a few minutes the wind stopped and the sun even shone through the scattered clouds. Then the winds returned as fierce as before for another hour or two. The strangest part is the suddenness of the calm and then the quick resumption of the windiness.

This is just a cat 1 storm making a transition to extratropical. It’s not even worth evacuating for unless you get flooded frequently.

“At 2 a.m. EDT on August 25, Vamco was still enroute to the Alaskan islands headed north-northeast at 38 mph” Subtract that 38 mph from the “QuikScat found Vamco still had sustained winds near 65 knots (74 mph), so he was still at a category one hurricane strength at that time.” and you don’t have much of a storm.

Been there, done that. Take my word for it – you do NOT want to be there. Super Typhoon off the coast of the Philippines in Sept 1968… there by accident and looking back I can say it was certainly a major “event”… of the “Oh My God We’re Gonna Die!” type. Can I say I am glad I experienced it – yes. Would I ever want to do it again – NO!

Great natural events/disasters can be very exciting but I suspect I am a jinx. I have been 2/3 of the way up a very active volcano (Mayon), in San Francisco for the ’89 quake, in the eye of a hurricane (on land) and the eye of a major typhoon at sea (see above), dodged tornadoes and can say that with the exception of Mount Mayon I did not go looking for any of these. If these should just happen to you then you can look back and say WOW, what a ride but make sure you carry spare underwear on the way in. These things are enjoyed in retrospect only.