Japanese company invents ’submarine’ to stop typhoons

LONDON - A Japanese company has invented a submarine that can purportedly stop a typhoon in its tracks, by diving in its path, and pumping cold water to the surface.

Ise Kogyo Co., a hydraulic engineering company based in Mie, central Japan, has obtained a patent for the submarine, which drops 30 metres below the surface and then pumps cold water to the top.

Typhoons need surface temperatures of 25 or 26 degrees centigrade to form and increase in destructive power, but by cooling the surface water the company believes the typhoon will peter out.

“The idea is to have a series of 20-metre long water pumps, each with a diameter of 70cm, attached to both sides of a submarine to pump cold water to the surface,” the Telegraph quoted Tomotsu Omori as saying.

Devised by company President Koichi Kitamura, each submarine would be able to pump around 480 metric tons of water per minute and would work in coordinated groups of up to 20 underwater vehicles.

In one hour, Kitamura estimates, the submarines would be able to reduce the surface temperature of the ocean by 3 degrees over an area of 57,000 square metres and take the punch out of the storm.

The company is now looking for partners to develop a prototype system to test. (ANI)