Ocean Evaporators

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Ocean Solar Evaporators (Large Scale)

Used to increase the water evaporation rate at selected ocean locations.

Construction

Place strong black/dark plastic sheeting approximately 3 metres beneath the ocean surface, thus avoiding wave engagement. It is envisaged that 0.5 kilometre by 100 kilometres surfaces be created to harness a larger proportion of the suns energy for surface sea water evaporation.

The sheeting's effect will be to capture the sun's energy in the upper most portion of the ocean. Normally sunlight falling on the ocean is converted to thermal energy which is spread out across the upper 300 metres. The sheeting captures this energy in the top layer of water (3 metres), warming it preferentially. The water in the lower layers is receives very little energy in comparison to normal unsheeted ocean conditions. The orientation of the sheeting with respect to sun's position, controls the amount of surface ocean heating.

Operation The sunlight falling on the ocean will be converted to thermal energy by the sheeting concentrating its heating effect at the surface. The sheeting will lead to large increase in water evaporation. The water vapour produced will form its own rise column into the atmosphere until it reaches the dew point height, where cloud birthing starts.

A large ocean seed area guarantees a stable water vapour column with good cloud formation prospects.

Impact

By increasing cloud cover across the earth oceans, the amount of energy captured by the earth decreases.

The scale and positioning of these ocean evaporaters could potentially:

1. Provide relief of drought conditions.
2. Provide a managed equtorial cloud layer reflecting daytime light and heat into space.
3. Release of stored ocean heat into space.

The impact on marine life will need assessment. Lethal saline concentrations and temperatures should be avoided. The heated surface water must not come into contact with senstive ecosystems. Evapourators should be placed in currents that carry the excess heat away from such ecosystems.

The ocean evaporators should be removable/recoverable by design. The ocean floor does not need more plastic. Ocean evaporators should prove much a cheaper/viable option than cloud chimneys.

Any method that increases the oceans surface turbidity can potentially be used to increase evaporation.

References

Solar Desalination
Evaporation Pond

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