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Tornadoes
Thunderstorms Hurricanes Tornadoes Global Cooling Cycle
Tornadoes form for very different reasons than hurricanes but they are still a functional part of the thunderstorm process. As described in the sulfur cycle section, charged particles are created in the storm by the dissociation of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) into ions such as SO4-2, O-2 and H+. But, there are many more ions as well that may result, such as H3O+, HO-, SO3-2. All of these charged particles are the reason we have tornadoes. As they swirl around in the storm, they cause the air to move with them.
Dusty, Polluted Air Spawns Tornadoes
Pollution Causes Most Lightning Strikes at Midweek
Articles by Michael Reilly, Discovery News
In a thunderstorm these charged particles form into two layers with H+ at the top and O-2 at the bottom. It is important to stress that there are a lot of other ions in these areas as well and we are only referring to the dominant ion species of H+ and O-2. This process internally forms a cold plasma in the cloud, or areas of charged ionized gasses in separate regions, causing a variety of other phenomenon to occur.
Between the layers of the cold plasma in a thunderstorm, a double layer forms and within this double layer Birkeland currents form, brought about by the influence of the earth's magnetic field lines. Birkeland currents are a natural phenomenon that occur throughout the upper atmosphere and are an intrical part of magnetically influenced plasma formations. Charged particles swirl around, forming a vortex in the core of the thunderstorm because of these currents, and there may be one or many of these currents depending on the structure of the plasma. As with most magnetic fields a multiplication factor influences the magnetic field strength, with one field adding to the next, like the coils of an electromagnet.
Within these currents, the more positive the particle is, the straighter the line it follows and the faster the particle moves upward, creating an updraft or partial vacuum in the vortex. The more negatively charged the particle, the more curved the particle's path is and the slower it moves upward, causing the air to move with it. This causes the negative sulfate to stay in the main, wet storm core longer than the H+ and to collect more and more water in the process. As the sulfate ice particle gets heavier, it will become electrically isolated by the accumulated ice and move out of the core to the top, front, green section of the storm, illustrated below, where it will begin to fall and melt. While only one Birkeland current is shown, it is proposed that many exist in the mature thunderstorm.
Special Note
Professor Emeritus of the Alfvén Laboratory in Sweden, Carl-Gunne Fälthammar wrote (1986): "A reason why Birkeland currents are particularly interesting is that, in the plasma forced to carry them, they cause a number of plasma physical processes to occur (waves, instabilities, fine structure formation). These in turn lead to consequences such as acceleration of charged particles, both positive and negative, and element separation (such as preferential ejection of oxygen ions). Both of these classes of phenomena should have a general astrophysical interest far beyond that of understanding the space environment of our own Earth."
Extracted from Wikipedia.org
The above note is very important as it helps to address the theory of where oxygen comes from in our environment. Birkeland Currents prefer to eject oxygen ions (the source of the oxygen we breath every day), and these ions are the source of the electrons in a thunderstorm that create lightning. Everyone has noticed the cool, clean, fresh air after a thunderstorm. This is new oxygen being formed, and because it is in such large volume, there are no other contaminates that have as yet, altered its smell. The fact that trees and other vegetation produce oxygen during the day from the uptake of CO2 is an important filtering process, however, based on the above theory, we would suggest that much of the oxygen in the atmosphere is, in fact, created in the thunderstorm process.
When the storm is in its mature phase, and has reached the stratosphere, it will over-top and start to rapidly give off the H+ from the top of the storm. This causes the vortex to begin to tighten up and spin faster as the charge balance changes. As this occurs, the vortex lengthens and we get a tornado developing out of the bottom of the storm. If the storm encounters the jet stream in the stratosphere, it acts like a siphon and pulls more and more of the + ions out of the storm. The greater the number of negatively charged particles, the larger the tornado will be. This also applies to the amount of sulfur oxides that exist in the storm. If there is a large source of SO2 or SO3 in the environment, the storms will produce even stronger tornadoes. Therefore, important factors in identifying severe tornado potential are How, How Much, and When sulfur enters the atmosphere.
This process can be seen today with the large increase in tornadoes we are having compared to fifty years ago. As mentioned in the following section on Global Cooling, and discussed below, there may be a correlation between the increasing storm activity and the flaring of SO2 and H3S from oil refineries that produce highly concentrated bursts of SO3 in the atmosphere. While there is much more SO2 in the environment from coal fired power generation, coal is not burned and oxidized into SO3. Studies to substantiate this correlation are underway and initial results do draw attention to very interesting patterns.
Below is a chart of tornado activity over the last six decades compared to oil production in the U.S. over the same period. You will notice that a decline in production in the eighties correlates with a similar decline in tornadoes in those years.
Click here to see these original charts
You will also note that from 1975 to 1988 tornado activity declined. Coincidentally, we decreased sulfur output by some 30% over those years. This occurred in spite of the fact that oil refining was higher than it is today, but may be a direct result of EPA sulfur standards being strictly enforced during this period to decrease acid rain. In 1988 tornado activity increased at the same time changes were made to the Clean Air Act and a relaxation in the EPA standards took place. Storm activity has shown signs of worsening to this day. While this can be partly accounted for by increased reporting over the past fifty years it cannot account for all the increase. This increased activity may be due in part, to increased use of lower grades of high sulfur crude oil by the petroleum industry.
Support Study #1:
While the above chart provides a revealing look at the possible correlation between sulfur concentrations and storm activity in general, a more specific study was done to analyze SO2 flaring activity from Texas and Louisiana, and compares the flaring to regional storm activity over the same period. In the case shown below, a tornado outbreak from February 2008 appears to track back to recorded high output sources of sulfur oxide and hydrogen sulfide.
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THE FOLLOWING NOAA STORM REPORT MAP HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO OVERLAY PREVAILING WINDS AND REFINERIES (WITH SAME-DAY HEAVY RELEASES OF H2S AND SO2).
The data suggests there may be reason to explore association between severe storm activities and the large volumes of sulfur being released into the atmosphere from refinery flares in West Texas and Houston Texas. The chart below indicates the actual levels of recorded SO2 and H2S released by refineries on February 4, 2008. The prevailing winds at this time could have been instrumental in pushing the flared SO2 and H2S northeast into Arkansas and as far north as Ohio. Tornadoes actually started to form several hours after the flaring events and continued for most of February 5 and 6. This single outbreak caused $507 million in damages and there were 57 deaths as a result. This is just one of a number of similar events that have been tracked and logged in our preliminary research.
Refinery Emissions - SO2 and H2S:
Date(m/d/yr) |
Location |
Report |
SO2(LBS) |
H2S(LBS) |
| 02/04/08 | Goldsmith | 103308 | 13489 | 146 |
| 02/04/08 | Goldsmith | 103265 | 7114 | 77 |
| 02/04/08 | Deer Park | 103284 | 35397 | 376 |
| 02/04/08 | Crane | 103309 | 825 | 8 |
| 02/04/08 | Sundown | 102844 | 122071 | 1322 |
Statistic developed from TCEQ data
The map below was developed in 1948 by NOAA to show the general wind pattern in the central US with respect to tornado formation and it indicates how the wind would direct the sulfur emissions at ground level and as it ascends in the atmosphere northward.
NOTE how these next two storm systems are very similar, both in size and general shape, while they are separated by five months.
Support Study #2:
A second study that suggests possible association between high atmospheric sulfur levels and storm activities, is an event that occurred on October 22, 2008. As shown below, a large storm system appears to originate from an area in, and around Sundown, Texas. Coincidentally, just before the storms were logged, on October 21, there was a large off-gassing occurring at the Sundown refinery (see emission chart below map). While this storm system did not produce any tornadoes, the off gassing did contribute to a large low pressure area over the mid-west and caused an early snow storm in central Canada.
U.S. Storm System - October 22, 2008
Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ)
Emission Event Reporting Database
Regulated entity name
|
FRAZIER UNIT BATTERY 1
|
Physical location
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AT INTER FM 301 AND 303, 3.6 MI S. ON 301, S. 0.1 MI, E. 0.6 MI
|
Regulated entity RN number
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RN102208576
|
City, County
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SUNDOWN, HOCKLEY
|
Type(s) of air emissions event:
|
EMISSIONS EVENT
|
Event began:
|
10/21/2008 3:30PM
|
This is based on the:
|
INITIAL REPORT
|
Event ended:
|
10/31/2008 5:00PM
|
Contaminant
|
Authorization
|
Limit
|
Amount Released
|
Carbon Monoxide
|
NA
|
0.0
|
41318.0 lbs (est.)
|
Hydrogen Sulfide
|
NA
|
0.0
|
5073.9 lbs (est.)
|
Non-Methane Non-Ethane Natural Gas
|
NA
|
0.0
|
14925.0 lbs (est.)
|
Oxides of Nitrogen
|
NA
|
0.0
|
20696.6 lbs (est.)
|
Sulfur dioxide
|
NA
|
0.0
|
468092.0 lbs (est.)
|
Support Study #3 - June 5, 2008 Tornado Outbreak
Wikipedia.org shows this map in its discussion on squall lines - "A large squall line over the United States on June 5, 2008." Note the apparent origin of the storm system in the central mid-west with a tail extending down into the Texas panhandle. Notice also how the tail of the squall line points to the same area in Texas as the refinery locations with high off-gassing, highlighted in the emission report below.
U.S. Storm System - June 5, 2008
Below is a map of tornado activity reported by NOAA and data reported from TCEQ on or about June 5, 2008.
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THE FOLLOWING NOAA STORM REPORT MAP HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO SHOW REFINERIES (WITH SAME-DAY HEAVY RELEASES OF H2S AND SO2).
Refinery Emissions - SO2 and H2S:
Date(m/d/yr) |
Location |
Report |
SO2(LBS) |
H2S(LBS) |
| 03/06/08 | Fort Stockton | 108714 | 164.73 | |
| 04/06/08 | Coyanosa | 108833 | 932 | 9.91 |
| 05/06/08 | Tilden | 108907 | 9401 | 102 |
| 05/06/08 | Andrews | 108901 | 1086.83 | 11.56 |
| 05/06/08 | Goldsmith | 108963 | 28748.78 | 177.64 |
| 05/06/08 | Marshall Plant | 108925 | 2400 | 256 |
| 05/06/08 | Sneed Booster | 108932 | 673 | 7.31 |
Statistic developed from TCEQ data
In the above support studies, it is important to understand that severe weather systems are the result of a number of complex interactions, only one of which may be the levels of sulfur in the atmosphere. Relative to the sulfur theory, it is prudent to examine not only the volumes of SO2 and H2S present, but also such things as the corresponding temperatures and moisture levels during the same time frame. Increases of any one factor could have a bearing on the intensity of the system. For this reason, additional research is required.
Natural Storm Occurrence
Storms such as the last two examples also occur naturally the "1993 Storm of the Century" was potentially caused by the El Chichon volcano in Mexico emitting sulfur oxides and hydrogen sulfide. You will notice in the article the distinct comma shape of the storm with the point source over the volcanic area.
Current Activity
Current Storm Activity . Updated Dec 3, 2008.
Other Storms this Month
Nov. 9th to 13th Storm Activity
Disclaimer:
DiAxiom has compiled collaborative data in support of the above theories connecting storm activity with regional sulfur emissions and concentrations in the atmosphere. Though a compelling argument can be made, it its important to realize these are early observations and further studies are warranted before a conclusive scientific position can be established. It should be noted that the petroleum industry is unaware of the potential causation described here as this new theory is only now being presented publicly.
It is not the intent or desire of DiAxiom Technologies Inc. to affix blame associated with the causes and effects of storm systems, but rather to highlight apparent relationships through scientific approach, and to present plausible explanation that might serve to bring about the necessary checks and balances that could reduce or eliminate the negative human impacts of catastrophic weather systems.
See also LIGHTNING > WHAT IS A TORNADO?
