OT - Re. hurricanes
 

The atmosphere is generally calm and non-chaotic compared to extreme
conditions such as hurricanes. Taken as a system, what changes occur to the
entropy of the atmosphere during severe disturbances?

Bob Swinney

It's all chaotic. Read "Chaos" by James Gleick. Hurricanes are just
nature's way of getting some of the accumulated heat in the tropics
mixed into the upper latitudes via jetstreams and such.

Of course, my recently repaired fishing boat, a 22' Pathfinder, is
stored in a marina near Freeport Tx and may not be there in three
days. My brother left Lake Jackson for Austin today, and Dad leaves
Danbury tomorrow morning. If you're in the path of one of these, it
damned sure seems more chaotic than normal. This is one of the few
times I'm glad to be sitting in Midland, Michigan instead of Texas.

I don't remember my thermo well at all, but hurricanes being mixing,
entropy would be increasing, ie., trending toward a less ordered
system.

Pete Keillor

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 15:12:44 -0500, "Robert Swinney"
wrote:

The atmosphere is generally calm and non-chaotic compared to extreme
conditions such as hurricanes. Taken as a system, what changes occur to the
entropy of the atmosphere during severe disturbances?

Bob Swinney

Robert Swinney wrote:
The atmosphere is generally calm and non-chaotic compared to extreme
conditions such as hurricanes. Taken as a system, what changes occur to the
entropy of the atmosphere during severe disturbances?

I thought it interesting that right before Katrina hit, the sky was
reportedly clear and cloud-free. All the clouds had been sucked into
the storm for hundreds of miles around.

"Rex B" wrote

I thought it interesting that right before Katrina hit, the sky was
reportedly clear and cloud-free. All the clouds had been sucked into the
storm for hundreds of miles around.


An old Virgin Islander once told me "When de sky clear and de wind stop de
hurricane be commin' cause she be suckin up the wind. "

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Robert Swinney" (clip) Taken as a system, what changes occur to the
entropy of the atmosphere during severe disturbances?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In principle, the energy in a storm is "available." That is, with proper
setup, it could be harnessed to do work. Think of a windmill pumping water.
After the storm, this energy has been dissipated by doing work on the
environment, and ultimately converted to heat, which is no longer available.
In thermodynamic terms, this is an "irreversible" process, resulting in an
increase in entropy. Good luck trying to put it in numbers, though.