See above for main Idea. This category is about "rain", and if more ocean water is evaporated, by adding heat to it, then more rain will fall. So, if we built a well-insulated long-distance heat-transfer system, we could gather desert heat (say from the Mojave), and move it to the ocean off the California coast, thereby evaporating more water.
-- Vernon, Mar 24 2015

Most heat pipes are pretty short http://www.heatpipe.com/
The needed length of heat pipe, to make this Idea work, is what also makes it Half-Baked. [Vernon, Mar 24 2015]

Synthetic sapphire as a heat-transfer substance http://link.springe...2FBF00118069#page-1
Relevant to an annotation, but the data here involves very VERY low temperatures. [Vernon, Mar 25 2015]

Black Sapphire https://www.google....22black+sapphire%22
Could be good for absorbing radiant heat. [Vernon, Mar 25 2015]

Salton Sea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
[normzone, Mar 25 2015]

Lake Death Valley Lake_20Death_20Valley
Got yer siphon right here, Cuity pie! [bungston, Mar 25 2015]

There's already quite a lot of solar thermal energy delivered to the Pacific. Might be easier to increase the minimum height the onshore air has to go over. Force it higher, make rain more likely.
-- bs0u0155, Mar 24 2015


Only by robbing areas further inland. Adding more energy to the ocean = more total rain.
-- MechE, Mar 24 2015


It looks like California's point of easy exit for clouds is northwards, Oregon has a decent amount of rain, Washington will probably pay for less.
-- bs0u0155, Mar 24 2015


//So, if we built a well-insulated long-distance heat- transfer system//

The atmosphere is already quite a large heat-transfer system, and there is a lot of it between Mohave and the California coast.

Your heat-pipe is going to be quite impressive to add anything significant to the overall heat transfer.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 24 2015


What about a giant syphon that connects the Pacific Ocean to Death Valley?
-- Cuit_au_Four, Mar 24 2015


[MaxwellBuchanan], I agree that the heat pipe needs to be a rather significant diameter, but the delivery end is much more efficient than the natural situation. The delivery end is IN the water, not above it (where heat rises and mostly doesn't go into the water). Perhaps, as an alternative or variant of this Idea, we try to capture heat above the ocean and transfer it downward into the ocean? (still Half-Baked; wrong direction of normal heat- transference, but not impossible, if heat-conducting solids are involved)
-- Vernon, Mar 25 2015


" What about a giant syphon that connects the Pacific Ocean to Death Valley? "

We've tried a variant on that idea already, we call it the Salton Sea.
-- normzone, Mar 25 2015



random, halfbakery