Cette information nous vient de Caraïbe360.com, un très brillant site d’informations sur la Caraïbe comme son nom le fait supposer. Il s’agit plus de la Caraïbe Anglophone que de la Caraïbe francophone, mais les informations sont toujours pertinantes.
Cette fois la question qui se pose est celle de savoir si oui ou non on peut affaiblir les cyclones ; Des Scientifiques estiment que c’est possible. Et leur théorie envisage aussi de pouvoir modifier la trajectoire du phénomène. On imagine facilement ce que peut entraîner une telle possibilité.
Voici quelques éléments de leur théorie.
LONDON, England, October 22, 2007 – Scientists have come up with a new theory on how to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course.
Two research teams from the United States and Israel proposed solutions at a hurricane conference in Italy.
Moshe Alamaro, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggested that soot – carbon particles – could be dropped from aircraft which would absorb the heat from the hurricanes and essentially robbing the hurricane of its « fuel » (heat). At the same time, Alamaro suggested that the top of the clouds could be heated up using microwave beams from satellites to allow the soot to absorb the energy.
The theory – tested using only computer simulations so far – is not intended to kill the hurricane but to weaken it slightly, cause it to veer in a different direction, which has potentially legal and social issues.
« The social and legal issues are daunting. If a hurricane were coming towards Miami with the potential to cause damage and kill people, and we diverted it, another town or village hit by it would sue us. They’ll say the hurricane is no longer an act of God, but that we caused it, » Alamaro said.
At Hebrew University of Jerusalem, scientists said they had simulated the effect of sowing clouds with microscopic dust to cool the hurricane’s base, also weakening it.
It builds on empirical research which shows that large dust clouds from Africa tend to hinder the formation deep storm clouds and hinder the formation of hurricanes when tropical systems are crossing the Atlantic.
Using dust as a killer tool, the question is whether it would have an impact once the hurricane has already been formed.
Daniel Rosenfeld told the conference that their research showed that dust dropped into the lower part of Hurricane Katrina would have reduced wind speeds and diverted its course.
Between 1962 and 1983 Project STORMFURY – operated by the Americans – seeded eight hurricanes with silver iodide. The theory was that it would cause super cooled water in the hurricane to freeze cause rain bands around the eyewall to grow rapidly and essentially « smother » the eyewall.
It didn’t work simply because there was not sufficient super cooled water in a hurricane and on the few occasions where it seemed to work, the old eyewall died and was replaced with a new one – sometime which has turned out to be a natural feature in major hurricanes.
Guadeloupe Attitude 