New invention to neutralize hurricanes with help from supersonic jet

London, Dec 2 : Scientists have put forward a patent application about developing a supersonic hurricane neutralizer, which can put a spanner in the atmospheric works by flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricane's eye, the calm area around which the storm rotates.

According to a report in New Scientist, the idea has been theorized by Arkadii Leonov at the University of Akron in Ohio, US, and his colleagues.

Each year, hurricanes or typhoons may cause billions of dollars' worth of damage and a large number of fatalities.

Scientists have been searching for an effective way of reducing the destructive power of these storms from a long time.

Now, Leonov says that the complex air flows and other atmospheric "machinery" that produce this prodigious power are surprisingly delicate.

In a patent application, Leonov and colleagues say that they can put a spanner in the atmospheric works by flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricane's eye, the calm area around which the storm rotates.

The idea is that the sonic-boom shockwave would dramatically raise air pressure in the eye, disrupting the upward flow of warm air that drives the hurricane.

As to how many planes would be needed, Leonov and colleagues say that sonic booms spread out as they travel away from an aircraft, so even a small number of relatively small aircraft could do the job.

"Two F-4 jet fighters flying at approximately Mach 1.5 are sufficient to suppress, mitigate and/or destroy a typical sized hurricane/typhoon," they claim in their application.

ANI