solutions to avoid the hundreds of billions of dollars paid out to rebuild the ruined regions.
The theory went, that after the hurricane had formed and developed an eye wall, Storm Killer could target the topmost cloud layers of the eye wall and hopefully raise the air temperature by heating these water-laden clouds.
This rise of temperature would lower the heat gradient between the upper and lower levels of the atmosphere and cause the storm to loose its energy generation capacity.
The topmost web of optical film was back embossed with a micro-prismatic reflective film similar to the kind currently used in traffic road signs. This film provided a highly reflective surface that made this web a superb mirror. This web collected the sunlight, magnified it, and bounced the light back through the other three magnification layers of webs.
By varying the configuration of the four sets of optical film webs in the dumbbell, the intensely magnified sunlight could be targeted to a pinpoint of focused energy only ten meters in diameter. At such a setting, the intense heat could burn through a steel armor plate one meter thick in less than two seconds. It could also be adjusted to a wide dispersal area over three kilometers in diameter. In this configuration, one billion kilos of water vapor could be increased in temperature by one degree centigrade every hour. By focusing the beam on the upper eye wall for twelve to twenty-four hours, the hurricane should weaken and collapse from the short-circuited natural heat transfer by decreasing the temperature gradient.
Of course, if Storm Killer missed the correct target point, it could actually be heating the sea-level water. Although this heating would take longer, the NOAA models indicated that an increase of one degree in the seawater could increase the storm by one full category on the Saffir-Simpson scale .
The implications of this technology were huge. The Department of Defense was looking at it as a possible weapon, and, in fact, a smaller but more powerful prototype using six synchronized optical webs was already being tested in a secret polar orbit. Some think tanks were looking into it as a possible way to light urban areas at night.
The webs were now deployed to their operational length. The SKIDs appeared to be doing an admirable job of keeping the webs aligned with the station and with each other. The station would be in the correct position with the sun and the earth in exactly forty-seven minutes. At that point, Storm Killer would be trained on Hurricane Edna and the world would change forever.
Storm Killer lived and awaited her first kill.
16
On The Surface
The United States Navy had blockaded the western one-half of the Atlantic waters adjacent to the Caribbean Ocean. All private surface vessels and civilian aircraft had been banned from the area. Several private and commercial ships had been escorted from the area by armed surface warships. The only craft allowed in the area were military and a large contingent of scientific surface vessels.
The scientific community had monitoring stations on board the surface vessels surrounding the hurricane every three degrees of the compass. They were maneuvering as closely as possible to the eye of the storm. The U.S.S. Lincoln was maintaining position two hundred twenty kilometers due west of the storm’s eye wall.
These ships would observe the storm’s center for changes and evaluate the affects of Storm Killer. NASA had grounded the usual flights through the eye wall due to the uncertainty as to what the impacts would be on the aircraft flying through the intense light beam heating the upper atmosphere.
Navy Rear Admiral Charles Olsen stood on the bridge of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln. He could not see beyond the end of the flight deck because of the heavy rain whipped by the almost hurricane force winds of a rogue thunderstorm spawned by Hurricane Edna still so far away. The
The theory went, that after the hurricane had formed and developed an eye wall, Storm Killer could target the topmost cloud layers of the eye wall and hopefully raise the air temperature by heating these water-laden clouds.
This rise of temperature would lower the heat gradient between the upper and lower levels of the atmosphere and cause the storm to loose its energy generation capacity.
The topmost web of optical film was back embossed with a micro-prismatic reflective film similar to the kind currently used in traffic road signs. This film provided a highly reflective surface that made this web a superb mirror. This web collected the sunlight, magnified it, and bounced the light back through the other three magnification layers of webs.
By varying the configuration of the four sets of optical film webs in the dumbbell, the intensely magnified sunlight could be targeted to a pinpoint of focused energy only ten meters in diameter. At such a setting, the intense heat could burn through a steel armor plate one meter thick in less than two seconds. It could also be adjusted to a wide dispersal area over three kilometers in diameter. In this configuration, one billion kilos of water vapor could be increased in temperature by one degree centigrade every hour. By focusing the beam on the upper eye wall for twelve to twenty-four hours, the hurricane should weaken and collapse from the short-circuited natural heat transfer by decreasing the temperature gradient.
Of course, if Storm Killer missed the correct target point, it could actually be heating the sea-level water. Although this heating would take longer, the NOAA models indicated that an increase of one degree in the seawater could increase the storm by one full category on the Saffir-Simpson scale .
The implications of this technology were huge. The Department of Defense was looking at it as a possible weapon, and, in fact, a smaller but more powerful prototype using six synchronized optical webs was already being tested in a secret polar orbit. Some think tanks were looking into it as a possible way to light urban areas at night.
The webs were now deployed to their operational length. The SKIDs appeared to be doing an admirable job of keeping the webs aligned with the station and with each other. The station would be in the correct position with the sun and the earth in exactly forty-seven minutes. At that point, Storm Killer would be trained on Hurricane Edna and the world would change forever.
Storm Killer lived and awaited her first kill.
16
On The Surface
The United States Navy had blockaded the western one-half of the Atlantic waters adjacent to the Caribbean Ocean. All private surface vessels and civilian aircraft had been banned from the area. Several private and commercial ships had been escorted from the area by armed surface warships. The only craft allowed in the area were military and a large contingent of scientific surface vessels.
The scientific community had monitoring stations on board the surface vessels surrounding the hurricane every three degrees of the compass. They were maneuvering as closely as possible to the eye of the storm. The U.S.S. Lincoln was maintaining position two hundred twenty kilometers due west of the storm’s eye wall.
These ships would observe the storm’s center for changes and evaluate the affects of Storm Killer. NASA had grounded the usual flights through the eye wall due to the uncertainty as to what the impacts would be on the aircraft flying through the intense light beam heating the upper atmosphere.
Navy Rear Admiral Charles Olsen stood on the bridge of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln. He could not see beyond the end of the flight deck because of the heavy rain whipped by the almost hurricane force winds of a rogue thunderstorm spawned by Hurricane Edna still so far away. The
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