There are already upward convection currents of warm moist air over the ocean, at least during the day (these turn off at night over land, but I’m not sure about over the ocean). These would go up to the top of the atmospheric boundary layer (~1 km up). So are you saying these waterspouts would somehow penetrate the top of the atmospheric boundary layer or work at night?
Oh, I only expect that the water spouts could be activated once the sun had accumulated enough over-heated high-humidity air within the tarp-layers… sometime late in the afternoon. Yet, the water spout removes more of the surface humidity than would convect otherwise—this allows further evaporation and cooling of surface waters. If that effect is strong enough, over a large area per water spout, then it might weaken hurricanes when they pass.
I don’t expect the water spouts to carry most of their moisture high into the air, as adiabatic cooling will condense the majority of it quickly. Yet, that plume would still leave moisture high enough for mixing, and it would be hot and humid, pushing higher. If that can increase cloud cover without a thousand airplanes dumping chemicals, that sort of geo-engineering might be an easier pitch to the public & government.
[Note: The key difference between the water spout and natural convection is that a vortex will sustain itself at a higher rate of flow, fueled faster by the thermal gradient. My hope is that this would increase surface evaporation enough to cool waters, weakening the storm. Clouds would be nice, however much we can get; I just expect evaporation to play a larger role.]
There are already upward convection currents of warm moist air over the ocean, at least during the day (these turn off at night over land, but I’m not sure about over the ocean). These would go up to the top of the atmospheric boundary layer (~1 km up). So are you saying these waterspouts would somehow penetrate the top of the atmospheric boundary layer or work at night?
Oh, I only expect that the water spouts could be activated once the sun had accumulated enough over-heated high-humidity air within the tarp-layers… sometime late in the afternoon. Yet, the water spout removes more of the surface humidity than would convect otherwise—this allows further evaporation and cooling of surface waters. If that effect is strong enough, over a large area per water spout, then it might weaken hurricanes when they pass.
I don’t expect the water spouts to carry most of their moisture high into the air, as adiabatic cooling will condense the majority of it quickly. Yet, that plume would still leave moisture high enough for mixing, and it would be hot and humid, pushing higher. If that can increase cloud cover without a thousand airplanes dumping chemicals, that sort of geo-engineering might be an easier pitch to the public & government.
[Note: The key difference between the water spout and natural convection is that a vortex will sustain itself at a higher rate of flow, fueled faster by the thermal gradient. My hope is that this would increase surface evaporation enough to cool waters, weakening the storm. Clouds would be nice, however much we can get; I just expect evaporation to play a larger role.]