Patent for Controlling Hurricane Intensity and Direction

Patent No.:  0072297 A1
Date of Patent: Mar. 25, 2010
Inventor(s): Manilal J. Salva;
Vishal T. Shah

A patent filed in 2009 describes a method for controlling hurricanes by raising temperature in the eye and/or in the outflow.

Image by Mike Trenchard on Wikimedia Commons

In the details of the document, air temperature within the eye and in the outflow of a hurricane is able to be raised by flying scores of jet planes with afterburners in the structure. It should be noted that small changes in temperature on a large scale bring in large changes in other variables on the smaller scale to change the direction and intensity of the hurricane.

Image from U.S. patent No.: 0072297 A1 - displaying a cross-sectional side view of the hurricane with jet planes flying through out the eye of the hurricane.

Background

Cloud seeding is a known process for artificially modifying the weather by injecting a composition into a cloud for formation of an ice freezing nuclei. Silver iodide is a well known substance used for cloud seeding. The Storm fury project carried out by the US Government for several years focused on hurricane formation suppression by means of aerial dispersion of silver iodide. This project was evaluated as a failure and cancelled.

In 1976, William Gray et al., suggested that the use of carbon black (or soot) might be a good way to modify tropical cyclones. The idea was that one could burn a  large quantity of a heavy petroleum to produce vast numbers of carbon black particles that would be released on the edges of the tropical cyclone in the boundary layer. These carbon black aerosols would produce a heat source simply by absorbing the solar radiation and transferring the heat directly to the atmosphere. This would provide for the initiation of thunderstorm activity outside of the tropical cyclone core and weaken the eye wall convection. In 1958, the US Naval Research laboratory carried out some experiments to monitor clouds seeded with soot but the results were inconclusive.

Advantages

As described in the patent, there are several "advantages", for the existence and application of this technology:

• the invention is considered to be practical, with immediate adaptation and little investment is required; and
• the potential to save of billions of dollars in storm damages and of lives by controlling hurricanes.
  

As one as expect, whether this invention is advantageous depends on the party applying the technology and their intended purpose. Remember, any tool can be used as a weapon.

Patents Related to Weather Modification

Below is a list composed of some of the patents that describe abilities to modify weather:

• U.S. Patent No.: 4,470,544 - discloses cooling of the surface of the sea in the summer time by mixing surface water with cooler deep water, this being achieved by pumping water from a lower level of the sea to the upper level. This causes reduction in the heat lost during the summer Whereby the amount of heat stored in the body of water during the summer is increased causing wintertime modification of the weather over the continental arid zone.
  
• U.S. Patent No.: 5,984,239 - describes Satellite Weather Modification System. It is an aerospace system designed to harness solar energy to modify the Earth’s weather. This invention involves placing at least one million satellites in a planetary orbit, each satellite being capable of reflecting solar radiation.
• U.S. Patent No.: 6,315,213 - discloses a method for artificially modifying the Weather by seeding rain clouds of a storm with a suitable cross-linked aqueous polymer. The super absorbent polymer is dispersed into the cloud and the wind of the storm agitates the mixture causing the polymer to absorb the rain. This reaction forms a gelatinous substance which precipitates to the surface below, thus, diminishing the velocity of the clouds.
  

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References

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US20100072297.pdf