Submarines to destroy ocean storms
by brian lam
Typhoons, hurricanes and other ocean-borne storms are powered by warm ocean water temperatures. So Japanese hydraulic engineering company Ise Kogyo has patented a submarine design that can siphon cold water from 30 meters down to the surface in order to sap the strength of storms. The plan is that a fleet of 20 subs would pump 480 metric tons of cold water up, which would take the surface temps down 3 degrees Celsius over 57,000 square meters.
[...] When seas are between 25C and 26C, typhoons are able to grow in, boosting their ravaging power as they head ashore. But Kitamura’s subs – only existing as patents, for the time being – would slip beneath the rampaging storms and then use 20m tubes to pump cold water to the surface, halting the typhoon’s progress (or at least weakening it). Kitamura claims a fleet of 20 such subs, pumping 480 metric tons of seawater per minute, could reduce the temperature of over 5600sqm by 3C – enough to take down the storm. [Telegraph via Scuttlefish] [...]
[...] When seas are between 77 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit, typhoons are able to grow in, boosting their ravaging power as they head ashore. But Kitamura’s subs—only existing as patents, for the time being—would slip beneath the rampaging storms and then use 65 foot tubes to pump cold water to the surface, halting the typhoon’s progress (or at least weakening it). Kitamura claims a fleet of 20 such subs, pumping 480 metric tons of seawater per minute, could reduce the temperature of over 61,000 square feet by three degrees—enough take down the storm. [Telegraph via Scuttlefish] [...]