Natural atmospheric (meteorological) hazardous phenomena - hurricanes, cyclones, storms, gale force winds, squalls, tornadoes. Atmospheric vortices Atmospheric vortex to disperse clouds
A tornado (or tornado) is an atmospheric vortex that arises in a cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) cloud and spreads down, often to the very surface of the earth, in the form of a cloud sleeve or trunk with a diameter of tens and hundreds of meters. Sometimes a whirlwind formed at sea is called a tornado, and on land - a tornado. Atmospheric vortices, similar to tornadoes, but formed in Europe, are called blood clots. But more often than not, all three concepts are considered synonymous. The shape of tornadoes can be varied - a column, a cone, a glass, a barrel, a whip-like rope, an hourglass, the horns of the “devil”, etc., but most often, tornadoes have the shape of a rotating trunk, a pipe or a funnel hanging from the mother cloud. Typically, the transverse diameter of a tornado funnel in the lower section is 300-400 m, although if the tornado touches the surface of the water, this value can be only 20-30 m, and when the funnel passes over land it can reach 1.5-3 km. Inside the funnel, the air descends and outside it rises, rotating rapidly, creating an area of very rarefied air. The vacuum is so significant that closed gas-filled objects, including buildings, can explode from the inside due to the pressure difference. Determining the speed of air movement in a funnel is still a serious problem. Basically, estimates of this quantity are known from indirect observations. Depending on the intensity of the vortex, the speed of the flow in it can vary. It is believed that it exceeds 18 m/s and can, according to some indirect estimates, reach 1300 km/h. The tornado itself moves along with the cloud that generates it. The energy of a typical tornado with a radius of 1 km and average speed 70 m/s is equal to the energy of a standard atomic bomb of 20 kilotons of TNT, similar to the first atomic bomb, blown up by the United States during the Trinity tests in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. In the Northern Hemisphere, air rotation in tornadoes usually occurs counterclockwise. The reasons for the formation of tornadoes have not yet been fully studied. It is possible to indicate only a few general information , most characteristic of typical tornadoes. Tornadoes often form at tropospheric fronts - interfaces in the lower 10-kilometer layer of the atmosphere that separate air masses with different wind speeds, temperatures and air humidity. Tornadoes go through three main stages in their development. At the initial stage, an initial funnel appears from a thundercloud, hanging above the ground. Cold layers of air located directly below the cloud rush down to replace warm ones, which, in turn, rise upward. (such an unstable system is usually formed when two atmospheric fronts connect - warm and cold). The potential energy of this system is converted into kinetic energy of the rotational movement of air. The speed of this movement increases, and it takes on its classic appearance. The rotational speed increases over time, while in the center of the tornado the air begins to rise upward intensively. This is how the second stage of a tornado’s existence proceeds - the stage of a formed vortex of maximum power. The tornado is fully formed and moves in different directions. The final stage is the destruction of the vortex. The power of the tornado weakens, the funnel narrows and breaks away from the surface of the earth, gradually rising back into the mother cloud. What happens inside a tornado? In 1930, in Kansas, a farmer about to go down to his cellar suddenly saw a tornado moving in his direction. There was nowhere to go, and the man jumped into the cellar. And here he was incredibly lucky - the foot of the tornado suddenly lifted off the ground and flew over the lucky man’s head. Later, when the farmer came to his senses, he described what he saw as follows: “The large shaggy end of the funnel hung right above my head. Everything around was motionless. A hissing sound came from the funnel. I looked up and saw the very heart of the tornado. In its middle there was a cavity with a diameter of 30-70 meters, extending upward for about a kilometer. The walls of the cavity were formed by rotating clouds, and it itself was illuminated by the continuous brilliance of lightning, jumping in a zigzag from one wall to another...” Here's another similar case. In 1951, in Texas, a tornado that approached a man lifted off the ground and swept six meters above his head. According to the witness, the width of the internal cavity was about 130 meters, the thickness of the walls was about 3 meters. And inside the cavity a transparent cloud glowed with blue light. There are many testimonies from witnesses who claim that at some moments the entire surface of the tornado column began to glow with a strange radiance of yellow tones. Tornadoes also generate strong electromagnetic fields and are accompanied by lightning. Ball lightning in tornadoes has been observed more than once. In tornadoes, not only luminous balls are observed, but also luminous clouds, spots, rotating stripes, and sometimes rings. It is obvious that the glow inside the tornado is associated with turbulent vortices different shapes and sizes. Sometimes the entire tornado glows yellow. Tornadoes often develop enormous currents. They are discharged by countless lightning bolts (regular and ball) or lead to the appearance of luminous plasma that covers the entire surface of the tornado and ignites objects caught in it. The famous researcher Camille Flammarion, having studied 119 tornadoes, came to the conclusion that in 70 cases the presence of electricity in them was undoubted, and in 49 cases “there was no trace of electricity in them, or at least it did not appear.” The properties of the plasma that sometimes envelops tornadoes are much less well known. It is undeniable that some objects near the destruction zone turn out to be burned, charred or dried out. K. Flammarion wrote that the tornado that devastated Chatney (France) in 1839, “...scorched the trees located on the sides of its path, and those that stood on this path itself were uprooted. The whirlwind affected the scorched trees only on one side, on which all the leaves and branches not only turned yellow, but also dried out, while the other side remained untouched and was still green.” After the tornado that caused destruction in Moscow in 1904, many fallen trees were severely burned. It turns out that air vortices are not just the rotation of air around a certain axis. This is a complex energetic process. It happens that people who are not affected by a tornado fall dead for no apparent reason. Apparently, in these cases, people are killed by high-frequency currents. This is confirmed by the fact that in surviving houses, sockets, receivers and other devices break down, and clocks begin to run incorrectly. The largest number of tornadoes is recorded on the North American continent, especially in the central states of the USA (there is even a term - Tornado Alley. This is the historical name of the central American states, which experience the greatest number of tornadoes), less in the eastern states of the United States. To the south, in Florida's Florida Keys, waterspouts emerge from the sea almost every day from May to mid-October, earning the area the nickname "waterspout land." In 1969, 395 such vortices were recorded here. Second region globe, where conditions arise for the formation of tornadoes, is Europe (except for the Iberian Peninsula), and the entire European territory of Russia. Classification of tornadoes Scourge-like This is the most common type of tornado. The funnel looks smooth, thin, and can be quite tortuous. The length of the funnel significantly exceeds its radius. Weak tornadoes and tornado funnels that descend into the water are, as a rule, whip-like tornadoes. Vague Look like shaggy, rotating clouds that reach the ground. Sometimes the diameter of such a tornado even exceeds its height. All large diameter craters (more than 0.5 km) are vague. Usually these are very powerful vortices, often composite. Causes enormous damage due to large sizes and very high wind speeds. Composite May consist of two or more separate thrombi around a main central tornado. Such tornadoes can be of almost any power, however, most often they are very powerful tornadoes. They cause significant damage over large areas. Fire These are ordinary tornadoes generated by a cloud formed as a result of a strong fire or volcanic eruption. To characterize the strength of tornadoes in the United States, the Fujita-Pearson scale has been developed, consisting of 7 categories, with zero (the weakest) wind force coinciding with hurricane wind on the Beaufort scale. The Beaufort scale is a twelve-point scale adopted by the World Meteorological Organization to approximate wind speed by its effect on objects on land or by waves on the high seas. Calculated from 0 - Calm to 12 - Hurricane. Tornadoes sweep over cities with terrible force, sweeping them off the face of the Earth along with hundreds of inhabitants. Sometimes the powerful destructive power of this natural element is enhanced due to the fact that several tornadoes combine and strike at the same time. The area after the tornado looks like a battlefield after a terrible bombing. For example, on May 30, 1879, two tornadoes, following one after another with an interval of 20 minutes, destroyed the provincial town of Irving with 300 residents in northern Kansas. One of the convincing evidence of the enormous power of tornadoes is associated with the Irving tornado: a 75 m long steel bridge over the Big Blue River was lifted into the air and twisted like a rope. The remains of the bridge were reduced to a dense, compact bundle of steel partitions, trusses and ropes, torn and bent in the most fantastic ways. The same tornado passed through Lake Freeman. He tore four sections of the railroad bridge off the concrete supports, lifted them into the air, dragged them about forty feet, and threw them into the lake. Each weighed one hundred and fifteen tons! I think that's enough
Very often bad weather interferes with our plans, forcing us to spend the weekend sitting in the apartment. But what to do if a big holiday is planned with the participation of a huge number of residents of the metropolis? This is where cloud dispersal comes to the rescue, which is carried out by the authorities to create favorable weather. What is this procedure and how does it affect the environment?
First attempts to disperse clouds
For the first time, clouds began to disperse back in the 1970s in the Soviet Union with the help of special Tu-16 “Cyclone”. In 1990, Goskomhydromet specialists developed a whole methodology that allows creating favorable
In 1995, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, the technique was tested on Red Square. The results met all expectations. Since then, cloud dispersal has been used during significant events. In 1998, we managed to create good weather at the World Youth Games. The celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow was not without the participation of a new technique.
Currently Russian service, engaged in cloud acceleration, is considered one of the best in the world. She continues to work and develop.
The principle of cloud acceleration
Meteorologists call the process of clearing clouds “seeding.” It involves spraying a special reagent, on the nuclei of which the moisture in the atmosphere is concentrated. After this, precipitation reaches and falls to the ground. This is done in areas preceding the city territory. Thus, the rain comes earlier.
This technology for dispersing clouds makes it possible to ensure good weather within a radius of 50 to 150 km from the center of the celebration, which has a positive effect on the celebration and the mood of people.
What reagents are used to disperse clouds?
Good weather is established using silver iodide, liquid nitrogen vapor crystals and other substances. The choice of component depends on the type of clouds.
Dry ice is sprayed onto the layered shapes of the cloud layer below. This reagent is carbon dioxide granules. Their length is only 2 cm, and their diameter is about 1.5 cm. Dry ice is sprayed from an airplane from a great height. When carbon dioxide hits a cloud, the moisture contained in it crystallizes. After this, the cloud dissipates.
Liquid nitrogen is used to combat the nimbostratus cloud mass. The reagent also disperses over the clouds, causing them to cool. Silver iodide is used against powerful rain clouds.
Dispersing clouds with cement, gypsum or talc helps avoid the appearance of cumulus clouds located high above the surface of the earth. By dispersing the powder of these substances, it is possible to make the air heavier, which prevents the formation of clouds.
Technology for dispersing clouds
Operations to establish good weather are carried out using special equipment. In our country, cloud clearing is carried out on transport aircraft Il-18, An-12 and An-26, which have the necessary equipment.
Cargo compartments have systems that allow spraying a liquid nitrogen. Some aircraft are equipped with devices for firing cartridges containing silver compounds. Such guns are installed in the tail section.
The equipment is operated by pilots who have undergone special training. They fly at an altitude of 7-8 thousand meters, where the air temperature does not rise above -40 °C. To avoid nitrogen poisoning, pilots remain in protective suits and oxygen masks.
How the clouds disperse
Before starting to disperse cloud masses, experts examine the atmosphere. A few days before the solemn event, aerial reconnaissance clarifies the situation, after which the operation itself begins to establish good weather.
Often, planes with reagents take off from a location in the Moscow region. Having risen to a sufficient height, they spray particles of the drug onto the clouds, which concentrate moisture near them. This results in heavy precipitation immediately falling over the spray area. By the time the clouds reach the capital, the supply of moisture runs out.
The clearing of clouds and the establishment of good weather brings tangible benefits to the residents of the capital. So far, in practice, this technology is used only in Russia. Roshydromet is carrying out the operation, coordinating all actions with the authorities.
Cloud Acceleration Efficiency
It was said above that clouds began to disperse under Soviet rule. At that time, this technique was widely used for agricultural purposes. But it turned out that it could also benefit society. One has only to remember Olympic Games, held in Moscow in 1980. It was thanks to the intervention of specialists that the bad weather was avoided.
A few years ago, Muscovites were able to once again see the effectiveness of clearing clouds during the City Day celebrations. Meteorologists managed to remove the capital from the powerful impact of the cyclone and reduce the intensity of precipitation by 3 times. Hydromet specialists said that it is almost impossible to cope with heavy cloud cover. However, weather forecasters and pilots managed to do this.
The acceleration of clouds over Moscow no longer surprises anyone. Often good weather during the Victory Day parade is established thanks to the actions of meteorologists. Residents of the capital are pleased with this situation, but there are people who wonder what such interference in the atmosphere could mean. What do Hydromet specialists say about this?
Consequences of cloud acceleration
Meteorologists believe that talk about the dangers of cloud acceleration has no basis. Monitoring specialists environment, claim that the reagents that are sprayed above the clouds are environmentally friendly and cannot harm the atmosphere.
Migmar Pinigin, who is the head of the research institute's laboratory, claims that liquid nitrogen poses no danger to either human health or the environment. The same applies to granular carbon dioxide. Both nitrogen and carbon dioxide are found in large quantities in the atmosphere.
Spraying cement powder also does not pose any consequences. In dispersing clouds, a minimal proportion of substance is used that is not capable of polluting the earth's surface.
Meteorologists claim that the reagent remains in the atmosphere for less than a day. Once it enters the cloud mass, precipitation completely washes it away.
Opponents of cloud acceleration
Despite the assurances of meteorologists that the reagents are absolutely safe, there are also opponents of this technique. Ecologists from Ecodefense say that the forced establishment of good weather leads to heavy torrential rains, which begin after the clouds disperse.
Environmentalists believe that authorities should stop interfering with the laws of nature, otherwise it could lead to unpredictable consequences. According to them, it is too early to draw conclusions about the consequences of actions to disperse the clouds, but they definitely will not bring anything good.
Meteorologists reassure that Negative consequences cloud acceleration are just guesses. To make such claims, careful measurements of the aerosol concentration in the atmosphere must be made and its type identified. Until this is done, the claims of environmentalists can be considered unfounded.
Undoubtedly, the acceleration of clouds has a positive effect on large-scale events under open air. However, only residents of the capital are happy about this. The population of nearby areas is forced to bear the brunt of the disaster. Disputes about the benefits and harms of good weather technology continue to this day, but so far scientists have not come to any reasonable conclusion.
The atmosphere of our planet is never calm; its air masses are in constant motion. The air element reaches its highest strength in cyclones - circular rotations of the wind towards the center. Storms and hurricanes are wildly rotating giant whirlwinds. Most often they originate over heated areas of the tropical zones of the oceans, but they can also arise in high latitudes. The very high-speed whirlwinds tornadoes are still largely mysterious.
The Earth's atmosphere is like an ocean, where air splashes instead of water. Under influence solar radiation, relief and daily rotation of the planet, inhomogeneities arise in the air ocean. Areas of low pressure are called cyclones, and areas of high pressure are called anticyclones. It is in cyclones that they originate strong winds. The largest of them reach thousands of kilometers in diameter and are clearly visible from space thanks to the clouds that fill them. At their core, these are vortices, where air moves in a spiral from the edges to the center, into an area of low pressure. Such vortices, constantly existing in the atmosphere, but born precisely in the tropics in the Atlantic and the eastern part Pacific Ocean and reaching wind speeds of over 30 m/s are called hurricanes. (“Hurricane” on behalf of the Indian evil god Huracan). In order for air to move at such a speed, a large difference in atmospheric pressure is required over a short distance.
Similar phenomena in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator, are called typhoons (from the Chinese “taifeng”, which means “big wind”), and in the Bay of Bengal they are simply called cyclones.
Hurricanes appear over warm waters oceans between the fifth and twentieth degrees of northern and southern latitude. A prerequisite for their formation is a huge mass of heated water. It has been established that the water temperature should not be lower than 26.5 ° C, the heating depth should be at least fifty meters. Warmer than the air, ocean water begins to evaporate. Masses of heated steam rise upward, forming an area of low pressure and drawing the surrounding air into motion. At a certain altitude, the heated steam reaches the dew point and condenses. Standing out at the same time thermal energy heats the air, causing it to rush upward, and thus feeds the newborn cyclone. The rotational component of wind speed spins it counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The rotation draws ever larger masses of air from outside into the vortex. As a result, the silhouette of the cyclone takes the form of a giant funnel, with its neck facing downwards. Its edges sometimes rise to the upper boundaries of the troposphere. Inside the funnel, a zone of clear, calm weather with low atmospheric pressure is formed, surrounded by thunderclouds. This is the eye of the hurricane. Its usual size is 30 x 60 kilometers. It occurs only in powerful tropical cyclones and is clearly visible from space. A tropical cyclone moves north or south of the equator, depending on its place of birth. Over land it quickly weakens, collapsing due to roughness earth's surface and lack of moisture. But once he gets out to the ocean, the flywheel can spin with new strength. A powerful hurricane can wipe out entire islands and change the coastline. Having struck densely populated areas, it causes colossal destruction, and the accompanying downpours and floods deal another, no less dangerous blow. Thus, more than three hundred thousand people died from the consequences of the cyclone that hit the state of Bangladesh in 1970. Hurricane Katrina, which occurred in Gulf of Mexico in 2005, killed nearly two thousand people and caused more than $80 billion in damage.IN tropical zone Hundreds of cyclones form every year, but not all of them gain hurricane force. The National Hurricane Center in Florida is forecasting 11 severe storms for the coming season. They already have their own names in store. The tradition of naming hurricanes was laid down in the 16th century by the Spaniards, who owned Latin America. They called them after saints. Then they came into fashion female names, since the 1970s men's. The idea was picked up by weather services around the world, except South Asia.
The Atlantic is very stormy
In high and polar latitudes there are similar vortex phenomena, only the mechanism of their formation is different. An extratropical cyclone receives energy from a powerful atmospheric front, where cold polar air meets warm air. The unwinding of such a system also occurs due to the rotation of the Earth. The diameter of extratropical cyclones is larger than that of tropical cyclones, but their energy is less.
When the wind speed in an extratropical cyclone reaches 20 24 m/s (9 points on the Beaufort scale), it is classified as a storm. Stronger winds are rare. If a hurricane nevertheless forms, for example, over the North Atlantic, then it rages in the ocean, sometimes capturing the coast of Europe. IN last years However, exceptions began to occur. In December 1999, the strongest hurricane Lothar, which originated precisely from the North Atlantic cyclone, advanced to the center of the continent, to Switzerland. “Kirill,” which paralyzed the lives of Europeans for several days in January 2007, also affected large territory. The wind speed there sometimes reached 62 m/s.
In the last decade, extratropical cyclones have become more often classified as storms and hurricanes, and their trajectories have also changed. If earlier atmospheric depressions that originated over the North Atlantic rushed through Great Britain and the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Arctic Ocean, now they began to go east and south, bringing powerful winds and heavy rainfall to the center of Europe and even Russia. These facts indicate that the likelihood of severe storms is increasing and we should be prepared for elements like Kirill.
A tornado destroyed a residential area in the town of Kvirla in East Germany on the night of October 2, 2006
People and Hurricanes: War of the Worlds
The kinetic energy of one powerful hurricane is enormous 1.5 x 10 12 watts, this is half the generating capacity of all power plants in the world. Some developers have long dreamed of directing it in a useful direction, but information about this is at the level of rumors. Allegedly, there are secret laboratories developing meteorological weapons and even testing them. One of the few official confirmations that work is underway in this direction is the report Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025, posted some time ago on the US Air Force website. It has a chapter on weather control for military purposes. Among the main strike capabilities of meteorological weapons are directed storms. The US military knows their “combat power” firsthand: in 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Homestead base on the Florida peninsula. However, the idea of directed storms should be considered more of a fantasy than a project. So far, hurricanes have not been controlled by humans.
To resist the natural elements, they proposed a lot of ways, including exotic ones - driving them away from the shore with the help of giant fans or tearing them apart with a hydrogen bomb. In the Stormfury experiment, conducted by American scientists in 1960–1980, silver iodide was sprayed in the area of a hurricane. It was assumed that this substance contributes to the freezing of supercooled water, as a result of which heat is released, and in the area of the eye of the hurricane, rain and winds intensify, destroying the structure of the entire vortex. In fact, it turned out that there is too little supercooled water in tropical cyclones, and the effect of spraying is minimal. Most likely, preventive measures will help, such as changing the parameters of the specific atmospheric depression from which the hurricane is born. For example, cooling the ocean surface with cryogenic materials or icebergs, spraying soot over water to absorb solar radiation (so that the water does not heat up). After all, there must be some trigger mechanism that suddenly twists the wind into a furious spiral. It is here that lies the key to controlling the elements and the ability to accurately predict the place and time of the birth of a hurricane. Only specialists cannot detect it in any way, and therefore attempts to prevent the strengthening of the vortex do not lead to success.
From Kansas to OzThere are small vortices in the atmosphere called tornadoes. They arise in thunderclouds and stretch towards water or land. Tornadoes occur almost everywhere on Earth, but most often, about 75% of cases, their appearance is noted in the United States. Americans call them “tornadoes” or “twisters,” meaning their frantic rotation and complex trajectory. In Europe, the same phenomenon is known as a “thrombus”.
There are plenty of facts about tornadoes; they began to be studied at the end of the 19th century. (You can even create a mini-tornado in your own home by placing a fan over a hot tub.) However, there is still no coherent theory of their origin. According to the most common idea, tornadoes originate at an altitude of the first kilometers when warm air coming from below meets a cold horizontal wind. This explains, for example, why there are no tornadoes in very cold places, such as Antarctica, where the air at the surface is not warm. To accelerate the vortex to high speed, it is also necessary that there is a sharp drop inside it. Atmosphere pressure. Tornadoes often accompany tropical cyclones. Such a pair hurricane with tornado produces especially severe destruction. Several tornadoes occur in a row. So, in April 1974, 148 tornadoes appeared in the USA and Canada within 18 hours. More than three hundred people died.
Typically, a tornado is shaped like an elephant's trunk hanging from a thundercloud. Sometimes it looks like a funnel or pillar. Having captured water, sand or other materials from the surface, the tornado becomes visible. The width of the average tornado is several hundred meters, the speed of movement is 1020 m/s. It lives for several hours and travels tens of kilometers. A strong whirlwind sucks in, like a giant vacuum cleaner, everything that gets in its way and scatters it tens of kilometers around. There are many funny stories about miraculous rains, for example, from fruits or jellyfish. In 1940, in the village of Meshchery, Gorky Region, silver coins fell from the sky, which the tornado “borrowed” from a shallow treasure. Once in Sweden, a whirlwind that suddenly flew into the stadium right in the middle of a bandy match lifted the goalkeeper of one of the teams along with the goal and carefully moved them several meters without causing any harm. Although moments before that, he broke telegraph poles like matches and smashed several wooden buildings into pieces.
The energy of a tornado is less than that of hurricanes, but its wind speed is much higher and can reach 140 m/s. For comparison: tropical cyclones of the highest, fifth, category on the US Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale begin with a wind speed of 70 m/s. A stick, sufficiently spun by a tornado, can pierce a tree trunk, and a log can ram a house. Only 2% of tornadoes reach destructive power, and yet their average annual damage to the economies of the affected countries is very large.
What about global warming?
Researchers note that in the Atlantic, periods of hurricane and tornado activity alternate with relative calm. The number of atmospheric vortices, in particular powerful hurricanes(an average of 3.5 per year), increased in 1940-1960 and from 1995 to the present. The strength of the current winds and ocean storms amazes even experienced sailors. Some scientists consider the latest outbreak of atmospheric activity to be long-term and link it to global warming. Others defend its connection with solar activity cycles. Both versions have not yet been confirmed; on the contrary, on a planetary scale, an increase in the number of tropical cyclones has not been noticed.
However, the question of how hurricane activity will change as average annual temperature planet remains open. That's why accurate forecasts tropical cyclones are more relevant than ever. The most modern means are used for them: space satellites, airplanes, buoys stuffed with electronics, radars, supercomputers. There is a lot of information: all hurricanes are recorded, tracked and notified of possible danger. Timely notification and evacuation these are the only ones for today effective ways fight against the elements.
Innokenty Senin
The orbit of warm and cold currents, trying to equalize the temperature difference between north and south, occurs with varying degrees of success. Then the warm masses take over and penetrate in the form of a warm tongue far to the north, sometimes to Greenland, Novaya Zemlya and even to Franz Josef Land; then masses of Arctic air in the form of a giant “drop” break through to the south and, sweeping away warm air on their way, fall on the Crimea and the republics of Central Asia. This struggle is especially pronounced in winter, when the temperature difference between north and south increases. On weather maps of the northern hemisphere you can always see several tongues of warm and cold air penetrating to different depths to the north and south (find them on our map).
The arena in which the struggle of air currents unfolds occurs precisely in the most populated parts of the globe - the temperate latitudes. These latitudes experience the vagaries of the weather.
The most troubled areas in our atmosphere are borders air masses. Huge whirlwinds often appear on them, which bring us continuous changes in the weather. Let's get to know them in more detail.
Let's imagine a front separating cold and warm masses (Fig. 15, a). When air masses move at different speeds or when one air
The mass moves along the front in one direction, and the other in the opposite direction, then the front line can bend and air waves form on it (Fig. 15, b). Wherein cold air turns south more and more, flows under the “tongue” of warm air and displaces part of it upward. - The warm tongue penetrates further and further to the north and “washes out” the cold mass lying in front of it. The air layers gradually swirl.
From the central part of the vortex, air is forcefully thrown out to its outskirts. Therefore, at the top of the warm tongue, the pressure drops greatly, and a kind of basin is formed in the atmosphere. Such a vortex with low pressure in the center is called a cyclone (“cyclone” means circular).
Since air flows to places with lower pressure, in a cyclone it would tend from
The edges of the vortex are directly towards the center. But here we must remind the reader that due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the paths of all bodies moving in the northern hemisphere are deviated to the right. Therefore, for example, the right banks of rivers are more eroded, and the right rails on double-track railways wear out faster. And the wind in the cyclone also deviates to the right; the result is a vortex with the direction of the winds counterclockwise.
In order to understand how the rotation of the Earth affects the air flow, let’s imagine a section of the earth’s surface on a globe (Fig. 16). The direction of the wind at point A is shown by the arrow. The wind at point A is southwest. After some time, the Earth will rotate, and point A will move to point B. The air flow will deviate to the right, and the angle will change; The wind will become west-southwest. After some time, point B will move to point C, and the wind will become westerly, i.e. it will turn even more to the right.
If lines of equal pressures, that is, isobars, are drawn in the region of the cyclone, it will turn out that they surround the center of the cyclone (Fig. 15, c). This is what a cyclone looks like on the first day of its life. What happens to him next?
The tongue of the cyclone stretches further and further to the north, sharpens and becomes a large warm sector (Fig. 17). It is usually located in the southern part of the cyclone, because warm currents most often come from the south and southwest. The sector is surrounded on both sides by cold air. Look at how the warm and cold flows move in a cyclone, and you will see that there are two fronts that are already familiar to you. The right boundary of the warm sector is - warm front a cyclone with a wide strip of precipitation, and the left one is cold; the belt of precipitation is narrow.
The cyclone always moves in the direction shown by the arrow (parallel to the isobars of the warm sector).
Let's turn again to our weather map and find a cyclone in Finland. Its center is marked with the letter H (low pressure). On the right is a warm front; The polar sea air flows into the continental air, and it snows.
Left - cold front: Arctic sea air, bending around the sector, bursts into the warm southwest current; a narrow strip of snowstorms. This is already a well-developed cyclone.
Let's now try to “predict” future fate cyclone It is not hard. After all, we have already said that a cold front moves faster than a warm one. This means that over time, the wave of warm air will become even steeper, the cyclone sector will gradually narrow, and, finally, both fronts will close together and occlusion will occur. This is death for the cyclone. Before occlusion, the cyclone could “feed” on a warm air mass. The temperature difference between the cold flows and the warm sector remained. The cyclone lived and developed. But after both fronts closed, the cyclone’s “feed” was cut off. Warm air rises and the cyclone begins to fade. The precipitation is weakening, the clouds are gradually dissipating, the wind is dying down,
the pressure equalizes, and a small vortex zone remains from the formidable cyclone. There is such a dying cyclone on our map, beyond the Volga.
The sizes of cyclones are different. Sometimes it is a vortex with a diameter of only a few hundred kilometers. But it also happens that the vortex covers an area up to 4-5 thousand kilometers in diameter - the whole continent! A variety of air masses can flock to the centers of huge cyclonic eddies: warm and humid, cold and dry. Therefore, the sky above the cyclone is most often cloudy, and the wind is strong, sometimes stormy.
Several waves may form at the boundary between air masses. Therefore, cyclones usually develop not singly, but in series, four or more. While the first is already fading, in the latter the warm tongue is just beginning to stretch out. A cyclone lives for 5-6 days, and during this time it can cover a huge area. A cyclone travels an average of about 800 kilometers per day, and sometimes up to 2000 kilometers.
Cyclones come to us most often from the west. This is due to the general movement of air masses from west to east. Strong cyclones are very rare in our territory. Prolonged rain or snow, sharp gusty winds - this is the usual picture of our cyclone. But in the tropics there are sometimes cyclones of extraordinary strength, with severe downpours and stormy winds. These are hurricanes and typhoons.
We already know that when the front line between two air currents sags, a warm tongue is squeezed into the cold mass, and thus a cyclone is born. But the front line can also bend towards warm air. In this case, a vortex appears with completely different properties than a cyclone. It is called an anticyclone. This is no longer a basin, but an airy mountain.
The pressure in the center of such a vortex is higher than at the edges, and the air spreads from the center to the outskirts of the vortex. Air from higher layers descends in its place. As it descends, it contracts, heats up, and the cloudiness in it gradually dissipates. Therefore, the weather in an anticyclone is usually partly cloudy and dry; on the plains she hot in summer And cold in winter. Fogs and low stratus clouds can occur only on the outskirts of the anticyclone. Since in an anticyclone there is not such a big difference in pressure as in a cyclone, the winds here are much weaker. They move clockwise (Fig. 18).
As the vortex develops, its upper layers warm up. This is especially noticeable when the cold tongue is from -
The vortex is cut and stops “feeding” on the cold or when the anticyclone stagnates in one place. Then the weather there becomes more stable.
In general, anticyclones are calmer vortices than cyclones. They move more slowly, about 500 kilometers per day; they often stop and stand in one area for weeks, and then continue on their way again. Their sizes are huge. An anticyclone often, especially in winter, covers all of Europe and part of Asia. But in individual series of cyclones, small, mobile and short-lived anticyclones can also appear.
These whirlwinds usually come to us from the northwest, less often from the west. On weather maps, the centers of anticyclones are designated by the letter B (high pressure).
Find the anticyclone on our map and see how the isobars are located around its center.
These are atmospheric vortices. Every day they pass over our country. They can be found on any weather map.
Now everything on our map is already familiar to you, and we can move on to the second main issue of our book - predicting the weather.
WEATHER CONTROL METHOD. People always dream of controlling the weather. That is, we want rain of a given intensity to fall at the time and place we need. We also want warm, sunny weather in the summer at the right time and in the right places, so that there is no drought, and in the winter, so that snowstorms and frosts do not rage. We want hurricanes and storms, tornadoes and tornadoes, typhoons and cyclones, if we cannot get rid of them, then all these atmospheric phenomena at least avoid our cities and settlements. Science fiction writers have long succeeded in this in their works. Is it really possible to control the weather? From a human point of view, the weather can be comfortable or not. But this, of course, is a subjective assessment. Comfortable weather for a resident of, for example, Africa may seem unbearable to a European due to the elevated atmospheric temperature. For the polar bear, accustomed to the harsh climate of the Arctic, the European summer already seems unbearable. In general, the weather on our planet Earth depends on the incoming solar heat. The supply of this heat to the surface of the planet primarily depends on geographic latitude. But the weather on each specific area of the earth's surface is not only its temperature, but also the temperature of the adjacent atmosphere. The atmosphere is a capricious lady. It receives its share of heat not from the Sun, but from the earth's surface and rarely stands in one place. It is the atmosphere, with its winds, hurricanes, cyclones, anticyclones, typhoons, tornadoes and tornadoes, that creates everywhere what we call weather. We can briefly say that the weather is made by vertical vortices of the atmosphere at the surface of the Earth. Controlling the weather means first of all learning to control atmospheric vortices. Is it possible to control these vortices? In some countries in Southeast Asia, sorcerers and psychics are hired to disperse clouds over major airports for flight safety. It is unlikely that they would be paid money for idleness. In Russia, we don’t hire sorcerers and psychics, but we already know how to clear clouds over airfields and cities. This, of course, cannot yet be called “weather control,” but, in fact, it is the first step in this direction. Real actions to disperse the clouds are already being carried out in Moscow during the May holidays and on the days of military parades. These measures are not cheap for the state. Hundreds of tons of aviation gasoline and tens of tons of expensive chemicals are spent to spray them into clouds. At the same time, all these chemicals and products of burned gasoline ultimately settle on the territory of the city and its surroundings. Our respiratory tract also suffers a lot. But it is possible to disperse clouds or, conversely, to cause rain in a certain place at much lower costs and with virtually no damage to the environment. We are, of course, not talking about sorcerers and psychics, but about possibilities with the help of modern technology create vortices in the atmosphere with the desired direction of rotational motion. At the end of the 70s of the last century, my friend (Dmitry Viktorovich Volkov) and I carried out experiments at our own expense to create a possible pulse jet engine. The main difference between the proposed invention and already known solutions of a similar engine was the use shock waves and their spinning in a special vortex chamber. (See for more details in the same section of Samizdat the article: “Pulse jet engine”). The experimental setup consisted of a vortex chamber and a charging tube, which at one end was screwed tangentially into the cylindrical wall of the vortex chamber. All this was attached to a special device for measuring impulse thrust. Since our goal was the engine, it is natural that we sought to obtain maximum impulse thrust, and looked at the weather only as a possible obstacle. For this purpose, a series of explosions of gunpowder were carried out in the charging tube. At the same time, the optimal length of the charging tube, the thickness of its walls (so as not to rupture) and other parameters were selected. We also paid attention to how the direction of swirling of the powder gases in the vortex chamber affects the thrust. It turned out that when twisting clockwise (as in an anticyclone), the thrust is slightly greater. Therefore, in further experiments we used only anticyclone swirling. One small problem forced us to abandon counterclockwise spinning (as in a cyclone) - the powder gases of the exhaust were pressed to the ground in a circle from the experimental installation. Of course, we didn’t want to breathe powder gases. We carried out our experiments for almost a week in early December 1979. It was soft winter weather. Suddenly, 20-degree frosts arrived, and our winter experiments had to be stopped. We never returned to them. VNIIGPE also contributed to the oblivion of our experiments with its refusal decisions after almost a year of correspondence. More than 30 years have passed since then. Now, when analyzing the results of those experiments, questions and assumptions arose: 1. Was it in vain that we stopped researching swirling powder gases using explosive shock waves? 2. Wasn’t it our anticyclone swirl that caused those frosts? 3. Wouldn’t a cyclonic swirl cause precipitation? The answers to the questions asked above are obvious to me. Of course, these studies had to be continued, but the state was not interested in our experiments, and, as they say, we could not afford to conduct such experiments privately. Of course, those frosts were not caused by our experiments. A few grams of gunpowder in the charging tube could not spin the winter anticyclone and then nature did without our help. But on the other hand, it is known that any disturbances in the Earth’s atmosphere spread over long distances, like waves on the surface of water. It is also known that, under certain conditions, vertical atmospheric vortices are capable of superrotation, that is, self-acceleration. After all, if you don’t chase the impulse thrust and make a small design change in our installation, increasing its parameters by an order of magnitude, and at the same time cause spinning not with individual explosive impulses from several grams of gunpowder, but with bursts of blank charges, for example, from an automatic rapid-fire cannon, then answering negatively to the second question, without experimental verification, is simply unreasonable. The answer to the third question asked above is similar to the previous answer. Nikolay Matveev.
