Saturday, March 24, 2018

Rain with biological heating simulation

Could we create a small El Nino close to Cape Town with black plastic sheets?  I have been reading some articles on the formation of El Nino and Wikipedia at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_layer says, "The depth of the mixed layer is thus very important for determining the temperature range in oceanic and coastal regions. In addition, the heat stored within the oceanic mixed layer provides a source for heat that drives global variability such as El Niño." 
Now another article says that chlorophyll causes the solar energy to be captured in the top layer of ocean and, despite strong winds, a shallow mixed layer of warm water 20 to 30 m deep persists on top of the ocean where there is chlorophyll (biological heating of the surface) - see 
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2003JC002024 
I therefore maintain that my cheap black floating plastic sheets will keep a warm layer on top (simulating biological heating) and will enhance rainfall. Probably for 10 million rands or so one could have a huge grid of floating black plastic sheets, say 50 m apart, that would enhance rainfall.
Reminder of my black floating plastic sheets idea: 
Hot water floats on cooler seawater and does not mix easily. For rain enhancement have cheap rigid black plastic sheets with plastic floats on the side that allow the black sheet to remain a few centimetres below the water surface Have a hole in the middle of the rigid sheet to let seawater in and out slowly. The black plastic sheet will absorb the visible light energy and infrared from the sun and when it radiates heat the heat radiated will be in the infrared range ranging around about 10 microns or so in wavelength. That type of radiation is absorbed within mm of penetration of sea, so in effect you have a greenhouse heating up with solar energy, because a few mm of seawater above the sheet will not allow radiation to exit the sea. http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/water_vibrational_spectrum.html tells us that absorption coefficients are around 1000 per cm for this situation. This means that the intensity of radiation from the black sheet will drop to 1% of its original intensity within 0.046 mm of penetration of the seawater above it.
The floating hot water will humidify and heat the air above it. This more humid less and dense air will rise increasing chances of convectional rain. These black sheets could float like so many boats on the sea outside drought areas. With 7 kWh of solar energy per square metre per day falling the black sheets could heat water above them, that is 1 m deep, by 6 deg C in a day.
https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<1097:BHITEP>2.0.CO%3B2
​ also has interesting information about biological heating.


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