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British to Test Geoengineering Scheme (Balloon and water hose)
MIT Technology Review ^ | 09-14-2011 | By Phil McKenna

Posted on 09/17/2011 7:30:16 AM PDT by Red Badger

In October, British researchers supported by the U.K. government will attempt to pump water a kilometer into the air using little more than a helium balloon and a rubber hose. The experiment, which will take place at a military airfield along England's east coast, is meant as a test of a proposed geoengineering technique for offsetting the warming effects of greenhouse gases. If the balloon and hose can handle the water's weight and pressure, similar pipes rising 20 kilometers could pump tons of reflective aerosols into the stratosphere.

The scheme, called SPICE (stratospheric particle injection for climate engineering), is one of several proposed geoengineering methods under study. In this case, the idea is that particles injected into the stratosphere would reflect a small percentage of the sun's energy back into space, thereby cooling the planet. The concept seeks to mimic the cooling effect of volcanoes that inject sulfide particles into the stratosphere in large quantity. A 2009 study by the U.K. meteorological office estimated that 10 million metric tons of sulfide particles injected annually into the stratosphere would cool the planet by approximately 2 °C within a few years.

Other methods of geoengineering have also been tested, including fertilizing oceans to encourage algae blooms and pulling carbon dioxide out of the air. But a 2009 report by the U.K.'s Royal Society concluded that reflective aerosol injected into the stratosphere would be the least expensive and most effective way to rapidly cool the planet.

In addition to the pipe tethered to the balloon, airplanes and rockets could be used to deploy the particles. But Hugh Hunt, a senior lecturer in engineering at the University of Cambridge and a member of the SPICE project, says the balloon-and-pipe approach that his group is testing would be significantly less expensive. "Trying to use airplanes or rockets ends up costing 100 or 1,000 times more than a pipe and balloon," Hunt says. "At an altitude of 20 kilometers, an airplane can only carry one, maybe two, tons of payload. That means five to 10 million flights per year, burning roughly 1 percent of global oil production. It seems unlikely to me that that would be economically viable when a few dozen pipes would do just as good a job."

The current pilot program will pump 100 kilograms of water per hour to an altitude of one kilometer. Full-scale designs call for as many as 64 pipes spread around the world, each lifting five kilograms of sulfur dioxide or other reflective particles per second—approximately 160,000 metric tons per year. Each pipe alone would weigh 30 tons and would be held aloft by a balloon 100 meters in diameter, slightly larger than the largest balloons ever built. The biggest challenge of all, however, would be developing a flexible pipe that can withstand ultrahigh pressures. To raise the particles to a height of 20 kilometers, the pipe would have to withstand 4,000 to 6,000 bar, or atmospheres of pressure.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: agw; newiceage; ungland
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To: Red Badger

It is a proven point that cold weather kills more people than warm.

So then, who is complaining about warmer climates?

Surely not the Vikings that were living in Greenland.

That is until things got cold again.

Perhaps it is all part of the population conspiracy.

That conspiracy preceded the acid rain, ozone hole,
global warming, climate change and a thousand other
scams by the radical control freaks of the world.

The ones that says too much population = bad.

Of course we know the definition of too much might just
be any, over and above those involved in the conspiracy.

Too many people with too much time on their hands. With
nothing to do but worry and fret about the state of the
planet. God help us, help ourselves.


21 posted on 09/17/2011 7:57:58 AM PDT by wita
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To: DUMBGRUNT

They will need a volcano.............


22 posted on 09/17/2011 8:01:43 AM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: Red Badger
Ungland...
23 posted on 09/17/2011 8:02:02 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Red Badger

I hope that they have a good heat tape wrapped around the pipe. I hear it gets a might chilly at 65,000 ft.


24 posted on 09/17/2011 8:03:38 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: molson209
This stuff will just freeze

Good point !!! It will freeze in the tube¿?

25 posted on 09/17/2011 8:04:48 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (The best is the enemy of the good!)
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To: Yo-Yo

At 39,000 feet, the last aircraft I was on, the outside temp a
was a brisk -100 degrees F......


26 posted on 09/17/2011 8:06:19 AM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: wita
nothing to do but worry and fret about the state of the planet

Yes, a warmer planet does have many someones stupid ... and stupid is as stupid does ... as all know.

Think if population control is the main objective, a delivery system less expensive would be the method of delivery or maybe the thinking is ... this would be the cheaper delivery system? Unknown to me yet, maybe balloons would be quieter in the dead of night?

Think it would be better to back away from the keyboard, for me ... Starting to scare myself.

27 posted on 09/17/2011 8:07:34 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
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To: Red Badger

They want to pump sulfur dioxide into the air from 64 stations around the world?

Thirty years ago, the predecessors of these kooks were campaigning for pollution control equipment to keep sulfur dioxide out of the air.

Do they think that if they put this stuff up high in the air it will not work its way back down to us?

Do they think that the rest of the world will just stand by and let them poison the global atmosphere, for a scheme as hare-brained as this?

No one knows what will really happen if they do this. But they are talking about a global experiment, and failure will have global consequences.

Besides, the sun has had decreased sun spot activity in the past three years, and some scientists are predicting a little ice age. The Maunder minimum lasted something like 70 years. Anyone who was perceived to have helped bring such a spell upon the earth would be the subject of scorn, ridicule, and revenge.


28 posted on 09/17/2011 8:08:38 AM PDT by Rocky (REPEAL IT!)
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To: Red Badger

My technical education is more than sufficient to understand both the theories and the evidence on both sides of the anthropogenic global warming debate. The result is that I am not worried about “man-caused climate change” hurting us. What frightens me is geoengineering. We may be totally out to lunch on AGW, but I am quite confident that geoengineering would drop global temperatures as much as predicted - the computations and technical challenges are so much simpler. The downside is that if the warming we are countering is fictional, instead of “saving” the world, we will push it into another ice age, and those can last for a very long time and do real damage. That sounds like something a liberal would do by accident, doesn’t it?


29 posted on 09/17/2011 8:14:33 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: Pollster1

The road to a frozen Hell is paved with good intentions..........


30 posted on 09/17/2011 8:16:49 AM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: Rocky

These are just like the guys that seeded hurricanes with silver iodide back in the 60’s, in an attempt to ‘rain’ them out of energy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Stormfury


31 posted on 09/17/2011 8:20:08 AM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: Red Badger
Spice Balloons! NOW that's just sexist!

Of course The Spice girls have nice balloons and could give a leg up to the program!

32 posted on 09/17/2011 8:20:23 AM PDT by Young Werther (Julius Caesar said "Quae cum ita sunt. Since these things are so.".)
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To: Pollster1
That sounds like something a liberal would do by accident, doesn’t it?

Yep, but everyone would be told, as always and as all know, the intentions were good. There would never be anyone who would be blamed for their "Good Intentions." How can anyone be or believe a liberal? Sheesh...

33 posted on 09/17/2011 8:20:24 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
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To: Pollster1

Always....always remember that the number 1 driving force for all liberals/Democrats/progressive/socialists is the fear that there are/will-be too many people on this planet. Killing people by freezing them to death, or starving them, is considered to be merciful euthenasia by Democrats.


34 posted on 09/17/2011 8:34:29 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Red Badger
Ummm, pressure of a column of water is density times height. Forget those stupid bars. Water weighs about 62.5 pounds per cubic foot, a mile is 5280 feet. To pump water up one mile requires a hose which can withstand
5280 ft x 62.5 lb/foot^3 = 330,000 pounds/foot^2 ~ 2300 psi
and a pump that can develop that kind of head pressure.
They don't have those at Ace. Besides which, the hose has to be able to support the weight of a mile long hose filled with water. The higher you go, the worse it gets.
35 posted on 09/17/2011 8:55:14 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ceterum autem censeo, Obama delenda est.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

...and it’s gonna freeze when it gets to the top..........


36 posted on 09/17/2011 8:56:42 AM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: Red Badger

I’m not sure what is most pathetic - that a nation would attempt such a laughable project or that a magazine entitled “MIT Technology Review” would bother to cover it(???)


37 posted on 09/17/2011 8:57:33 AM PDT by The Duke
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To: Red Badger

I’m not sure what is most pathetic - that a nation would attempt such a laughable project or that a magazine entitled “MIT Technology Review” would bother to cover it(???)


38 posted on 09/17/2011 8:57:44 AM PDT by The Duke
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To: no-to-illegals

A Crop Duster would work better.........

39 posted on 09/17/2011 8:59:22 AM PDT by Red Badger ("Treason doth never prosper.... What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.")
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To: Red Badger

Attention Hugh Hunt and other idiotic British researchers: It’s not note to screw around with Mother Nature.


40 posted on 09/17/2011 9:00:25 AM PDT by upchuck (Rerun: Think you know hardship? Wait till the dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency.)
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