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Fog Plow
Create a cleared path through the fog | |
In areas prone to dense fog use a "fog plow" to clear the highways and reduce the risk of multi car pileups. Since the air where for occurs is generally still, the purpose of the fog plow is to create a "tunnel" in the fog. Continuous passes through the fog area will be necessary to maintain the path.
Fog
Plow #1: on the front and top of a slow moving truck is mounted a large refrigerated panel, that while moving through the fog condenses the water vapor, leaving behind a wet road.
Fog Plow #2 on the front or rear of a truck is mounted a jet dryer, ducted to create a wall of superheated air directed upward, sucking in and burning off the fog, sending it skyward.
Seed Clouds
http://www.hydro.co...udseeding/faqs.html [kbecker, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
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Annotation:
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As the fog goes skyward, doesn't other fog just spill into the "tunnel?" |
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Croissant for making me laugh, though. Very charming. + |
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The proximity of the refrigerated front end to the heated rear end would make the vehicle a giant blob of fog. |
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// The airport ..used surplus jet engines ...to burn off fog // |
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The old Soviet air force did this as well. Technically quite practicable, but very thirsty for jet fuel; not commercialy economic for anything other than a vital runway in an emergency situation. |
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The plow should spread some stuff for cloud seeding too. They could put those salt spreaders they use in winter on a tall pole and put Silver Iodide into it. ... oops, bridge, didn't see that in the fog. |
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I think this one has already been baked,
though not using either method
described. I remember reading a few
years back about a fog plowing truck
fitted with a big water tank and an array
of fine spray nozzles. Driving along a
foggy road, the truck would spray water
in all directions (perpendicular to
direction of travel). Presumably, the
water droplets in the mist would
combine with the droplets in the fog,
get heavy, and fall to the ground. |
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I haven't seen any fog plows driving
around, so the concept may not have
worked all that well. Any fog plow will
have to make frequent passes over the
same bit of road, and it may work out
that it's just not worth the effort. Also,
you'd want to equip the plow itself with
some sort of forward-looking system
that can see through the fog in order to
keep the truck on the road and prevent
it from hitting other vehicles. If you
figure out a way to do that, you'd
probably be better off productizing it
and installing it in all vehicles, thus
obviating the need for the plow in the
first place. If you can't do that, on the
other hand, it's probably safer and
cheaper to close the road until the fog
lifts. |
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what about a low yield nuclear airburst to clear the fog? |
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'there is no such thing as overkill, only
"open fire" and "i need to reload"' |
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