Atmospheric rivers are found in small regions of the atmosphere, they have the ability to transport very large amounts of water vapor. On average they transport enough water to flood Maryland up to a foot deep. It is possible that these rivers could possibly cause flooding in certain areas, and it is predicted that if this were to happen then there could damage done worse than hurricane Katrina. The rivers also contribute to very strong winter storms. NASA is investigating the rivers in the sky with unmanned aircrafts to find out what they are and learn hopefully the main reasons they are there. Further research could help us get more accurate weather predictions in the future, if there is a way to monitor the movement of the rivers. The new unmanned aircraft called the Global Hawk has many devices for measuring a number of different things. For example there is a remote sensing instrument that detects heat radiation released by oxygen and water molecules to determine their density and temperature. This tool operates at microwave frequencies which allow it to easily go through clouds to get to the atmosphere; it will be very beneficial for studying the behavior of weather and the rivers in the sky. The aircraft its self is very durable it has the ability to stay in the air for more than twenty-four hours and it is able to go into places with very high and low altitudes where it would dangerous for humans to travel.
I think this is very interesting and a great concept, if we could potentially harness the water in the sky rivers we could greatly increase our fresh water supply possibly as long as it had no negative impacts on the environment.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is very interesting, however on an other opinion these rivers could just be the trafficking of airflow sectors the oceans, I believe they pose no threat.
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