By Leonard David Senior Space Writer - posted: 03:56 pm ET 03 March 2000

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO -- A blast of microwave energy beamed down from a space satellite could be used to tame the destructive nature of a tornado, a scientist said this week. Such weather-watching duty might be assigned to future solar power stations that would circle Earth.

Each year, about 1,200 tornadoes are reported in the United States, according to the American Meteorological Society. An average of 55 people die annually as a result of twisters, and billions of dollars worth of property are destroyed or damaged.

Their extremely high winds propel debris, destroy homes, collapse buildings and overturn vehicles. There is growing evidence that global warming may spawn increasing amounts of nasty weather, including tornadoes, at an even greater intensity in years to come.

But the tornado-nuking concept advocated here this week flies in the face of being at the mercy of Mother Natures fury. Called a Thunderstorm Solar Power Satellite, the concept was presented at the Space 2000 Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations and Business in Space, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The proposal calls for beaming microwave energy into the cold, rainy downdraft of a thunderstorm where a tornado could originate. That pulse of power would disrupt the convective flow needed to concentrate energy that forms a tornado, said Bernard Eastlund, president of Eastlund Scientific Enterprises Corp, based in San Diego, California.

He has teamed up with Lyle Jenkins, a 37-year NASA veteran who now heads his own firm, Jenkins Enterprises in Houston, Texas.

The two researchers envision surgical strikes of microwave energy that could modify the temperature and fine structure of storm systems.

"We call it taming the tornado," Jenkins said. "With just a little burst of microwave energy, we think we see a way to negate the trigger point in tornado creation. We want to heat the cold rain. By tailoring the beam, it can absorb the rain that is part of the tornado-making process."

Eastlund has looked at data provided by the Advanced Regional Prediction System at the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms Center at the University of Oklahoma.

These numerical simulation data were used to study the formation of conditions suitable for "tornado-genesis." And he and Jenkins used them to see the effects of zapping an incipient storm with electromagnetic radiation beamed from a proposed Thunderstorm Solar Power Satellite.

Another aspect of their proposal could address the need for orbiting Doppler radar that could see tornado conditions forming. These data would be fed into a tornado-stopping satellite, perhaps positioned in geosynchronous orbit above the areas most affected by severe weather. By using a specially-tuned microwave pulse, rather than laser or infrared beams, that energy can be targeted within a storms interior, not through it or reflected away.

"You cant wave your hands about this idea," Eastlund said. "Youve got to use real numerical modeling. My research shows that by heating the falling rain, we can turn off the downdraft that drives a tornado." More research is needed, he said, to further determine just how much energy would yield a knockout punch to a tornado on the brew.

But is it nice to fool with Mother Nature? "This is a new science were talking about of weather modification...a new paradigm which seeks to mitigate these violent weather systems," Eastlund said.

"If it does prove possible to prevent tornadoes," Eastlund continued, "then systems could be envisioned in which severe storm phenomena such as hurricanes and typhoons are also modified in some beneficial fashion, and weather modification could be routine in the 21st century." - space.com