A Norwegian company called OceanTherm claims to have an innovative idea for dealing with hurricanes. According to the team, the solution lies in … bubbles.
In particular, the startup wants to use bubbles to cool the sea so as to stop the deterioration of the elements. Because hurricanes typically “feed” on water above 26 degrees Celsius, this allows them to intensify and become much more dangerous. The idea is that cooling will reduce their power.
“I’ve worked on a submarine and I know the water is colder deep in the ocean,” said OceanTerm CEO Olav Hollingsetter. “I thought we could use this cold water from the deep sea to reduce the temperature of the sea surface,” he said.
OceanTherm is developing a so-called “bubble curtain” to do just that. The project involves ships dropping multiple perforated pipes into the ocean along the path of the storm to generate bubbles that raise the colder waters to the surface.
Although this is an interesting concept, it has not yet been tested in a real hurricane. That is why it is not clear at the moment whether the idea will work in practice.
