Purpose of the website

The inventor of the Albedo system neither has the resources nor wishes to undertake the development of the Albedo system through to fruition. He is therefore seeking a US organisation to take on this work. This is likely to be one of the major American aircraft firms² or perhaps one of the universities which has a special interest in researching hurricanes. It seems likely that the US government will ultimately have to fund the project but it may expect the project to be considerably more researched before they become involved.

The aim of this website is therefore, first to try and develop media interest in the proposal, and then as part of the initial approach to organisations who may be interested in taking on the development of the project. Another value may be that the public exposure of the system may generate valuable comment from the general public. Anyone seeing a new idea which they have not thought of themselves invariably concentrates on the negative aspects and this could be useful.

² The project is of course equally relevant in all the other parts of the world subject to the scourge of hurricanes. China, India, The Philippines, Burma are the important ones.

The Albedo System

Background

1.1 Hurricanes are the most destructive forces on the planet, disrupting lives and economies across the world.  In their early stages hurricanes are weak, needing massive amounts of energy from the sun into a full blown destructive power making this the ideal time to prevent their development.

1.2 The Albedo system seeks to interfere with the formation of hurricanes by reflecting the sun’s energy back into space. By taking the power out of the hurricane formation process the cycle is broken.  The project has been 5 years in fruition and is now ready for further investment to move it forward into development.

1.3 The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lists many proposals which have been put forward but very few have even survived NOAA’s technical analysis as being worth actual experiment.  Of those that have none has succeeded.  Despite this unbroken record the Albedo system, the subject of this paper, is yet another proposal.  Against this background how can the inventor have such gall as to confidently propose a new one?

What makes the Albedo System different?

2.1 The answer lies in two considerations. A study of all the previous inventions shows that they have tried to influence full-blown hurricanes. Their efforts against the tens of millions horse power being developed have inevitably been so puny as to be useless. The Albedo completely avoids this problem by going back to the first days in the birth process of a new hurricane. At this stage the formation processes are very weak and are frequently frustrated by quite small counter forces. The Albedo seeks to add an effective and extra counter force.

2.2 Secondly, a careful study of the generation of the power of hurricanes shows that they are in fact enormous natural steam engines. The fuel is the incoming energy from the sun which evaporates the surface of the sea. The “steam” then expands as it rises in the atmosphere and finally condenses, releasing its latent heat. It is a remarkably inefficient cycle but on a huge scale. The Albedo seeks to interfere with the cycle by reflecting the suns energy back into space during the early hurricane formation process. Done over a sufficient area this will clearly be effective. The key question is what is a sufficient area? Albedo seeks to reflect from 100 sq. Kilometres of sea surface. This represents an average reduction of energy at the rate of 40,000,000 Kw. At the proposed size (four Albedo craft) the scheme is entirely practical and could be increased within (say) a range of up to five times (with a proportionate increase in cost) and still retain acceptable practicality but one doubts the practicality of increasing by an order of magnitude. 

2.3 A further and equally important consideration is timeliness. During the Atlantic hurricane season¹ the NOAA monitors meteorological conditions in detail to locate suspect areas where the conditions indicate the possibility of hurricane formation. Where a suspect area is identified it may, after a couple of days or so, be seen to be beginning to develop in which case the squadron of Albedos will be called in from their waiting stations. It is estimated that all four will have landed and deployed their reflecting sheets within seven hours from the call and hence that the timeliness constraint is fully met.

Find out more about the Albedo System

¹ Hurricanes which pose a threat to the US mainland tend to form in an Atlantic area which lies between 40° and 60°W and 10° and 20° N. The season runs from May 15 to November 30.