Fall is hurricane season, and we have already seen five plus hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. Interesting discoveries show that microscopic plants on the ocean floor may be able to change the path of a 300-mile-wide hurricane. The secret to these tiny plants is their vast numbers.
Known as the "grass of the sea," phytoplankton are the most plentiful marine live. Like grass the phytoplankton capture the sun's energy using chlorophyll (light absorbing green pigment). When the phytoplankton grows all at once it can change the ocean's color from deep clear blue to murky turquoise.
The turquoise color stops that sun from penetrating as far down into the surface of the sea, and causes the surface layer to be much warmer near the surface and cold below. As a result, hurricanes in these areas tend to last longer and are stronger. These research comes from computer modeling from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Water movement makes it very difficult to isolate the effect of ocean temperature.
The simulation showed that there was a 15% drop in the number of hurricanes that formed each year. The hurricanes that were not pushed north fizzled around the equator. Why does this happen? Removing the phytoplankton the sun can go deeper into the ocean cooling the surface. As a result, the air cools above the surface, and enables cool dry air to come down. When a hurricane enters this large-scale cool, dry air-descending area, the moist warm air that rises is countered by the cooler dry air, and thus weakening the hurricane.
Photo source: nasa.gov
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Comments: 10
Green plankton is normally limited by the availability of iron. Chlorophyll in green plants is iron-based, quite similar to iron-based hemoglobin in animals. Chlorophyll is green, as hemoglobin is red, because of the 'mineral' role of the iron in the molecule.
Factors which enhance the nutrient-picture in a given patch of ocean - particularly iron - are responsible for 'plankton blooms'.
It has been suggested to attempt global climate engineering, by putting ships to sea with cargoes of iron, and fertilize the ocean.
Arthour C. Clark ("2001 - A Space Odyssey") wrote "The Deep Range" in 1957. It is based on fertilizing & farming the oceans. The 'soap opera' in it interfered with what was the attraction for me - the concepts & techniques of converting the oceans into a 'Deep Range', but the book is still a landmark on the ocean fertilization & production-management scene.
I understand view factors and the idea of temperature being "seen". For example, a thin layer of water can freeze in the dessert when the temperature is just above freezing because the temperature seen by the surface of the water on a clear night is that of space. Radiative effects cause the water to freeze.
As such, understand warming in a sense of radiative effects. Still, I have to admit, I think of "absorbance" with respect to molecules. As such, the radiation of the sun that penetrates should be the same. On the other hand, the "effective" color from the "view factor" caused by the plankton may actually cause a change in radiative heat transfer!
I'd have to wade through it more carefully, but it looks similar to the neutron-flux treatment equations for nuclear power plants.
COART does both radiative and convective transfer together ... which might be good for hurricane assessment, but might complicate the radiative question itself.
Ultimately, this is what it all comes down to, isn't it?
Actually, mass transfer along with convective, conductive, and radiative heat transfer. Each of those factors are affected by the physical system!