California ’s running out of water supply . This year ’s book - bump drought — coming after two already dry years — has the state scrambling for the liquid stuff . Plans toseed cloud for extra snowfallare already in place . But do we really require storm clouds for piss ? Why not use fog ?
San Francisco’s2.08 inches of rainsince July is the humble ever register , but the city has no lack of water vapor in the sky . As any tourist trying to take photos of the Golden Gate Bridge can manifest , Karl the Fogmakes frequent appearances about those parts . And San Francisco bloggerBurrito Justicehasdone the math :
haze contains anywhere between 0.05 and 0.5 g of water per cubic measure . Karl , being Karl , is obviously 0.5 grams . take on half the urban center is covered in haze at a deepness of 1000 substructure ( i.e. the top of Twin Peaks ):
49 satisfying mil / 2= 63,454,700 square meters * 300 meters= 19,036,410,000 m3 * 0.5 grams= 9,518,205,000 grams = 9,518,205 kilo = 9,518,205 l = 2,514,440 gallons
Photo viaFrancesco Carucci / Shutterstock
outstanding ! Except as Burrito Justice himself allow , there ’s no viable way to collect daze over one-half of the metropolis — though he has some frosty mockups of Sutro Towerretrofitted as a fog accumulator though :
But it ’s not a totally wacky estimate . There is common law for murk aggregator in the world . And even if they ca n’t slake the thirst of a whole city , they can do wonders for a little village in the mountains .
The Canadian non - profitFogQuestis devoted to set up small - scale fog collectors in remote areas . Since 2000 , the organization has build the mesh - comparable collectors in village fromNepal to Ethiopia to Guatemala . It was cofounded by Sherry Bennett and Bob Schemenauer , an atmospheric scientist who first started hoard fog for inquiry .
Top photo via this FogQuest video
The mesh of these fog collectors is made from cost - good polypropylene or polythene . urine droplet collect on the charge plate , dripping down into a tankful below . Depending on conditions and locating , a panel 13 by 26 feet can produce 40 to 200 gallons of water per day . They even bring in desert areas that get as little as a millimeter of rainwater a year .
FogQuest ’s plastic meshes are a modern spin on an ancient drill . From Israel to Egypt to Latin American , archaeologist have found structures arranged to collect condensation from the air .
pic of tenocara beetle viaHans Hillewaert / Wikimedia Commons
animal , too , can salute water from the airwave . The Stenocara mallet of the Namib Desert , for model , sticks its rear oddment into the fog . A combination of water - revolting and piss - attracting surfaces on its body channels piss straight into its mouth .
scientist in Australia have originate asynthetic surfacemimicking the beetle ’s body that could coat the roofs of houses for water accumulation . Using techniques both uncomplicated and sophisticated , fogginess collection is another way for humans to tapdance into the water cycle .
haze accumulator at a scientific station in Hawaii viaUSGS .
Of course , we ’re a foresighted path from follow through any of these system on a liberal scale stateside . But it ’s interesting to guess a futurity in which our visible horizon are retrofit with wispy , urine - producing substructure . [ Burrito Justice – Columbia Water Center ]
ClimateSan FranciscoWaterWeather
Daily Newsletter
Get the estimable tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
