From: Gene Thompson (gthompso@ccsf.cc.ca.us)
Date: Wed Nov 29 2000 - 12:54:20 PST
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 12:54:20 -0800 (PST) From: Gene Thompson <gthompso@ccsf.cc.ca.us> Subject: Re: pinhole Global Superstorm? Message-ID: <Pine.HPX.4.21.0011291253520.22155-100000@fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us>
Thank you! Wasn't losing sleep over worry but over trying to figure out
the errors. Phew.
Ellen Koivisto
On Wed, 29 Nov 2000 SFPhysics@aol.com wrote:
> > The scenario goes like this -- global warming changes the huge current in
> > the Atlantic that drives the weather in that hemisphere. As a result, a
> > huge temperature differential builds up between the troposphere (warm) and
> > the lower stratosphere (very cold). Eventually that cold air is gonna
> > fall, and because it's so cold in comparison, it keeps moving south till
> > it hits the equator and is boosted back up into the stratosphere, still
> > essentially unheated. The picture is of a storm (or storms) that runs
> > from the pole to the equator and has too much energy driving it to stop
> > until a massive snowfall takes place.
> > Does any of this sound like anything anyone else is hearing from legit
> > sources? I do know the stratosphere is getting colder....
> > Ellen Koivisto
> > George Washington High School, SF
> >>
>
> Actually, they have the wrong ocean. The Pacific Ocean drives much of the
> world's weather. Since it is the largest it is the greatest heat sink and
> heat reservoir. Note how El Niņo and La Niņa have changed weather in Europe
> and Africa in the last decade. Wind patterns, the jet stream, rainfall,
> etc., are all effected around the earth by the ocean temperatures in the
> Pacific. We in the United States have the most extremes in weather because
> the Pacific absorbs so much energy then gives it off later, that is why we
> see the great air masses clashing over the U.S. and spawning more tornadoes
> than anywhere else on earth.
>
> The idea that air in the stratosphere could fall because it gets cold misses
> the fact that the adiabatic temperature rise from its compression would soon
> stop any such fall. There is a reason that most weather features (clouds,
> storm fronts, wind, etc.) take place in the troposphere. The troposphere
> contains most of the mass of the air on the planet. You only have to go up
> 12,000 feet and you are about half way through the air mass on the earth.
> The atmosphere is truly just a thin "onion skin" layer over the planet. So,
> what goes on in the stratosphere is important but it cannot create a
> superstorm of hemispherical dimensions. True, the jet stream is in the
> stratosphere and it does move air masses around but those same air masses
> push back and keep the jet stream from gaining to much control.
>
> The weather patterns of the earth are divided into cells and bands. The
> cells move around but never merge. The idea of a superstorm would have you
> believe that the cells somehow link from pole to equator. Since the cells
> are moving in different directions at different latitudes, the superstorm
> idea loses credulity here also.
>
> Don't lose sleep over this.........
>
> Al Sefl
>
>
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