| MadSci Network: Earth Sciences |
Someone a while back asked a similar question, with a slightly more
powerful ordnance in mind. They wanted to know if a 10 megaton nuclear
device (against which a GBU-43/B is a little pink bunny) could serve the
purpose you propose. The short answer is no, and the reason is that a
hurricane is unbelievably more powerful than we mere mortals can imagine.
(Think of it this way: Katrina leveled an entire city, to say nothing of
the effect it had on the rest of Florida and Missouri. How many B52s full
of bombs would it take to create the same effect?)
Your solution will not work for a couple of reasons. First, as I've already
mentioned, stopping a hurricane with a bomb is like trying to stop a semi
with a flyswatter. Second, hurricanes are driven from the ground up, as
rising moist air condenses and releases heat. Adding the explosive energy
of a bomb merely adds to the heat, and will make the storm hurricane just a
little worse instead of just a little better.
If you really want to reduce the power of a hurricane, what you need to do
is lay a huge freaking tarp out just above the ocean in the path of the
storm. That will prevent the warm, moist air from rising at that location.
The logistics of that one, needless to say, make the exercise of dropping a
nuke on the storm look pretty trivial. And besides, you just hand the
problem to someone else.
For more on nuclear warheads and hurricanes, you might want to visit this site to find
out why you would just annoy the hurricane.
Moderator note: You might also find this answer from our archives (on smaller atmospheric phenomena) interesting as well.
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