Diaxiom Technologies

  

VOG - VOLCANIC SMOKE AND FOG / AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT

 

VOG is an acronym of volcanic, smoke and fog .  However, a better way to think of it is as an acronym for Volcanic Off Gassing, comprising more than just smoke and fog.  Recognizing that sulfurs represent a key element of volcanic off gassing, and as part of our developing theory of the importance of sulfurs in the environment, we believe VOG is very important to how our environment functions globally. 

For example, if VOG is emitted over land, it draws moisture from the surrounding land mass and acidifies the soil, killing off plant life.  When VOG is emitted over the ocean, it draws moisture from the ocean and creates tropical storms and cyclones. 

 

                       
                                       Whakaari/ White Island, New Zealand

                                                  

VOG is made up of many constituents:  SO2, SO3, H2S, ash or pumice, CO2 and many others.  However, the largest component is SO2.  As discussed previously, when SO2 is combined with moisture, it forms sulfuric acid in the atmosphere (i.e. acid rain).  This acid rain, if in high concentrations, will acidify the soil and kill off plant life as evidenced during the late seventies in the American Northeast and Canada.  This is the first step in the process of desertification or soil dehydration.  If this process continues over an extended period of hundreds or thousands of years, the soil will be destroyed by the accumulated sulfuric acid salts, and erosion will cause the formation of sand.  The sand will eventually dominate the landscape, forming a desert such as in central Australia and the Sahara.  On the other hand, If there is a low concentration of sulfur in the atmosphere, normal rainfall occurs that is almost always slightly acidic and considered normal. 

This process can also be seen in North-Africa, the Middle East, the American Southwest and in the Gobi desert of central China.  These areas are bordered by VOG producing volcanoes that have been producing SO2 for centuries.  Mount Etna  is a prime example of this, dumping billions of metric tonnes of sulfur oxides over North Africa for the past two thousand years. The volcanoes of Indonesia and the Philippines have dumped sulfur oxides over Australia for millions of years.

Conversely, the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands have dumped sulfur oxides over the central Pacific Ocean for millions of years.  As our hurricane theory suggests, this excess sulfur in the atmosphere, combined with moisture or high levels of atmospheric H20, contributes significantly to the formation of hurricanes in the Western Pacific and the monsoonal rains over Southeast Asia and China.  

 

Managing Weather

 

Sulfuric acid is used everyday to dehydrate fruit and this hygroscopic process occurs in the atmosphere and our environment as well.  Sulfur oxides are hygroscopic in nature and attracts water, drawing moisture out of the atmosphere in one area and depositing it in another. Understanding this concept could possibly enable us to some day modify weather patterns and bring rain to drought prone regions of the world such as West Africa and Australia. 

Australia, for example, is currently experiencing an extended drought.  If there were some way of emitting large quantities of sulfur oxides into the atmosphere just off its eastern coast, we could promote the formation of clouds between New Zealand and the Australian coast, thereby feeding rain to Australia's eastern coastal areas.  

This occurs everyday on a small scale as ships move from place to place, burning high sulfur bunker-sea-crude-oil as fuel.   See the ship-tracks illustrated below. These ship-tracks are actually clouds that can last for a day or more after the ships have moved through an area.  Filthy Clouds, an article from NASA explains this in greater detail.

                           

 

Following our sulfur theory further, suppose an ocean going, bulk carrier vessel is loaded with raw sulfur and is equipped with specially designed sulfur burners to oxidize the sulfur into SO2 and SO3.  This ship could emit tonnes of sulfur oxides into the atmosphere, promoting cloud formation. This process could be compared to when refineries flare SO2 and H2S into the atmosphere.  The sulfur ship could be moved to take advantage of prevailing winds to help create rain in targeted locations like the east coast of Australia.  

While this may sound far fetched in terms of conventional environmental logic, this is how nature functions. Cloud seeding is done everyday in many countries to create rain and to prevent hail. Rain will not occur without clouds, and cloud droplets will only form around CCN's or Cloud Condensing Nuclei.  And because SO2 is the principle source of naturally formed CCN's in the environment, then it might well be concluded that rain is directly related to SO2 levels.

                                   
                               Cloud Seeding to create rain.

                                                  

   Einstein said, " If at first glance the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."

 

                              

                                       DiAxiom Technologies - CloudOne     

                                               

What is obvious in this video is that cloud seeding at ocean level functions very well. However, what is not described or discussed is why it formed a cloud in the first place, according to conventional thinking  this process should have only brightened an existing cloud not created one. We believe it was the sulfur used in the pyrotechnic flare that created the cloud and as it was oxidized by the heat of the flare it was converted to SO3,  which in turn reacted in the high humidity to create the cloud. 

An  example of this VOG process in action was the 2005-2006 Australian tropical cyclone season that, according to our theory, could logically have been caused by the volcano below in the Galapagos Islands, emitting thousands of tonnes of SO2 into the atmosphere.  Refer to Hurricane section. 

 

 

Eastern Australia would typically be affected by the volcanic activity of northern New Zealand's Taupo Volcanic Zone situated on the northern island.  The map below shows this geographic relationship. The position of the southern Hadley Cell and the ITCZ would be instrumental in the timing of such emissions, and any decrease in sulfur dioxide from the Taupo region moving into the ITCZ would effect rainfall in Australia dramatically, potentially causing drought conditions.  Other volcanic sources north and east of Australia could have the same effect on coastal rainfall.

 

                          

 

Have Australian Rainfall and Cloudiness Increased Due to the Remote Effects of Asian Anthropogenic Aerosols?

(in press, 23/10/2006)

  

 

 

Leon D. Rotstayn,1 Wenju Cai,1 Martin R. Dix,1 Graham D. Farquhar,2 Yan Feng,3 Paul Ginoux,4 Michael Herzog,3 Akinori Ito,3 Joyce E. Penner,3 Michael L. Roderick,2 and Minghuai Wang3

Abstract. There is ample evidence that anthropogenic aerosols have important effects on climate in the Northern Hemisphere, but little such evidence in the Southern Hemisphere. Observations of Australian rainfall and cloudiness since 1950 show increases over much of the continent. We show that including anthropogenic aerosol changes in 20th Century simulations of a global climate model gives increasing rainfall and cloudiness over Australia during 1951– 1996, whereas omitting this forcing gives decreasing rainfall and cloudiness. The pattern of increasing rainfall when aerosols are included is strongest over northwestern Australia, in agreement with the observed trends. The strong impact of aerosols is primarily due to the massive Asian aerosol haze, as confirmed by a sensitivity test in which only Asian anthropogenic aerosols are included. The Asian haze alters the meridional temperature and pressure gradients over the tropical Indian Ocean, thereby increasing the tendency of monsoonal winds to flow towards Australia. Anthropogenic aerosols also make the simulated pattern of surface-temperature change in the tropical Pacific more like La Ni˜na, since they induce a cooling of the surface waters in the extratropical North Pacific, which are then transported to the tropical eastern Pacific via the deep ocean. Transient climate model simulations forced only by increased greenhouse gases have generally not reproduced the observed rainfall increase over northwestern and central Australia. Our results suggest that a possible reason for this failure was the omission of forcing by Asian aerosols. Further research is essential to more accurately quantify the role of Asian aerosols in forcing Australian climate change.