OceanTherm is developing a system that uses bubbles to cool the surface temperature of the sea. A Norwegian company says it has identified a way to mitigate the effects of storms.
Among the most catastrophic effects of climate change is rising sea temperatures. Warmer oceans lead to higher sea levels, melting ice caps and more extreme weather events, including hurricanes. However, a Norwegian company is developing a system to mitigate the power of the latter by blowing air bubbles deep in the water. The bubbles would cool the surface temperature of the sea by drawing cold water from the depths of the oceans.
The Ocean Bubble System to Block Hurricanes
The system is being developed by OceanTherm, founded by Olav Hollingsæter, a former naval officer. It starts with the fact that hurricanes are created when warm and cold air meet over warm ocean waters at 26.5 °C or higher, and the warmer the water, the more powerful a hurricane can become. Water below 26.5°C, however, has neither the heat nor the evaporation levels to power a hurricane, and thus would reduce its strength or directly prevent its formation. So OceanTherm’s idea is to place perforated tubes deep in the Ocean through which compressed air would be blown.
The air would create bubbles that would bring cooler water to the surface and reduce its temperature below 26.5°C. The tubes would be deployed by a fleet of ships patrolling areas of likely hurricane formation, such as the Gulf of Mexico, and would create a “bubble curtain” in the path of a hurricane to reduce it, if not stop it altogether. The new application is based on an old idea: Norway has been using bubble curtains for years to keep fjords from freezing in winter, but in this case, unlike in the ocean, the bubbles bring warmer water to a surface that is cooled by cold winter air.
In fact, OceanTherm’s proposal has yet to be tested on a hurricane and much more research and development is needed to make it viable. According to Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences at University College London, “there is a huge difference between preventing a fjord from icing up and weakening a tropical cyclone with the power of several thousand nuclear bombs and up to a thousand miles or more.” Turning to the practicalities of the project, the cost of getting the requisite number of ships to the right place at the right time and throughout the organization could be estimated at $500 million to set up and over $80 million per year to execute. A seemingly prohibitive sum though likely less than the projected costs of hurricane damage.
While OceanTherm continues to work on the project, technologies to rid the oceans of plastic through the use of drones and robots are being developed in other parts of the world.
Stefania Bernardini