Cloud control could have tamed Sandy.

• Position: Hurricanes

They are one of the most destructive forces of nature on Earth, but now environmental scientists are working to tame the hurricane. In a paper published in Atmospheric Science Letters, the authors propose using cloud seeding to decrease sea surface temperatures where hurricanes form. Theoretically, the researchers claim the technique could reduce hurricane intensity by a category.

The team focuses on the relationship between sea surface temperature and the energy associated with the destructive potential of hurricanes and superstorms. Rather than seeding storm clouds or hurricanes directly, the idea is to target marine stratocumulus clouds, which cover an estimated quarter of the world's oceans, to prevent hurricanes from forming.

"Hurricanes derive their energy from the heat contained in the surface waters of the ocean," explains Alan Gadian, researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, U.K. "If we are able to increase the amount of sunlight reflected by clouds above the hurricane development region, then there will be less energy to feed the hurricanes."

Using a technique known as Marine Cloud Brightening, the authors propose that unmanned vehicles could spray tiny seawater droplets, a good fraction of which would rise into the clouds above, increasing the droplet numbers and thereby the cloud reflectivity and duration. In this way, more sunlight is bounced back into space, thereby reducing sea surface temperature.

The team's calculations, based on a climate atmosphere coupling model, suggest this could reduce the power of developing hurricanes by one category. Somewhat different cloud-seeding projects, designed to influence rainfall amounts directly, already exist around the world and...