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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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So, it is possible to incentivize clouds to rain with lasers. It's part of "cloud seeding" tech that is already done today in Dubai.
But this just triggers rain on certain clouds, it's not going to trigger a hurricane.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2021/07/28/dubai-is-using-laser-drones-to-shock-rainwater-out-of-the-sky/
It also isn't going to make a cloud produce rain if it wasn't going to anyway. It's just an attempt to get it started early.
A big enough laser pointed at the ocean would probably get a hurricane started; just gotta get enough moisture and heat into the air.
Now, powering the thing would be tricky, and doing it all unnoticed...
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/constellation-inks-power-supply-deal-with-microsoft-2024-09-20/
I like the way you think, but I don't think Three Mile's remaining reactor has the output you'd need.
Actually, I wonder what the wattage of an average hurricane is. Somebody has to have done the math, probably Randall.
yeah, to be real, I'm not convinced our total global generated power would even be on the same order of magnitude.
I was thinking tera or exa watt output would be needed, which is less than our global energy consumption, but hilariously more than any individual power plant could produce, regardless of whether it's fission, fusion, natural gas, or coal.
An antimatter powered generator might be able to hit the mark, but good luck with that; both building an antimatter power plant, and creating enough antimatter in the first place
Reminder: none of the currently available methods of cloud seeding are proven to work.
https://www.wired.com/story/new-gods-weather-rain-cloud-seeding-emirates/
Yes, it all works in theory and in the lab, but in practice we have no idea if cloud seeding "makes it rain" or if it would have rained anyway (to make a long story very short).
So take anything anyone says about "them making it rain" with, like, two grains of salt.