Greatest artificial gravity is at the greatest distance from the axis of rotation.
Hence the formation of a lake.
Starting from a cool lake and atmosphere.
Heating the lake causes evaporation and increase in humidity and air temperature.
The warm humid air rises and cools untill the relative humidity is 100 percent.
Clouds then form in a hallow cylindrical shape, along the axis of rotation.
The clouds, composed of small water droplets, gave up heat when the water wapor condensed into droplets. What you have is similar to a http://www.benchtest.com/heat_pipe1.html]heat pipe which distributes heat to even the temperature throughout. Eventually, all the droplets "fall" and thermal equilibrium is established.
The crucial decision is how the heat escapes.
The clouds will flow towards the heat exchanger.
Your best comparison would be a permanent Cyclone
First guess is from http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect … nservation of Angular Momentum.
In order to have differential rotation, density has to change over time. Otherwise, frictional effects will equalize the spin rate.
It would be interesting to figure out the effect on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession]precession of the cylinder's rotation. For example, what would happen if you moved the heat exchangers, changing the mass distribution of the atmospheric flow.
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a hollow sphere does not produce any gravity inside. The gravitational field inside is the same as if the hollow sphere were not there (i.e. the field is that of any masses inside and outside the sphere only)
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Divergence_theorem]No gravity inside hallow sphere. As if the spherical shell did not exist,
other than for preventing radiation and gasses from escaping.
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However, once you put things inside. it will tend to clump,
not necessarily at the center of the hallow sphere.
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Water vapor is lighter, so it will rise to the outside of the clump, and eventually the heavier things will drift towards the center, due to gas pressure differentials.
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Cooling would be convenient;
since the water vapour would condense on the inside of the spherical shell,
and fall very slowly as large drops or as hail.
Raindrops as large as beachballs, due to very low gravity.
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Adding rotation would counteract gravity; settling the contents into a ring.
Leading to an internal torus arrangement, in the equatorial plane,
The clouds would form and drift towards the center,
requering a cooling system at the center to form water.
The rain would fall from the center
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Lenghtening the torus gives a cylinder. Gravitational bunching at the center.
The clouds squeezed towards the ends; cooling could take place, with the water slowly flowing back towards the center.
One large axial centered cloud, conveniently spreading over the cooler heat exchangers at the ends.
There would be turbulence and shearing effects, decreased rotation near the ends, due to conservation of angular momentum. A low pressure system centered along the axis.
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Optimized tubeworlds are the most convenient way to set up the water cycle.
Air circulation and heat regulation combined in a large heat pipe.
Heating near the center, expanding the air and introducing moisture.
Cooling, condensing, making more dense at the ends, forms a large heat engine.
Maybe even set up windmills to generate electricity.
Dicktice: Why a hollowed-out asteroid? Why not just go with an O'Neill Colony?
I hope you also don't mind my asking: Is this part of a fiction story you're working on?
--Cindy
]]>1. If sunlight is shining in either or both ends of the asteroid through a small window, at great intensity, what is its distribution on the asteroid's "floor"? For example, if it shines in the north polar window and illuminates the entire southern hemisphere, the south pole will receive the most intense, straight-on vertical heating; the equator will receive the least heating because the light will be coming in most diagonally and because the equator will have a larger surface area. But the pole is already at the height of the clouds whereas the floor is way "down." So your thermal model can't simply assume the highest temperature at the ground level and adiabatic decreases with height, because of the high altitude "mountain" receiving intense sunlight at the opposite pole.
Making all of this more complicated, the sunlight will be shining horizontally straight through your clouds, heating them directly, especially the ones closest to the window; they might get several times more solar intensity per square meter than the equatorial floor. The clouds will also shadow the floor big time; a small cloud in the right place and the entire asteroid interior would be "overcast" until the cloud evaporates in the roasting heat. It may be that insolation will make the central axis the hottest spot.
2. Where will all these gigajoules of heat coming into the interior go? How will they be removed? Perhaps when the sun is shining in one end of the asteroid, there will be airconditioning working at the other end. The air conditioning could be a gigantic transparent tube running the axis of the asteroid with small holes in it. Huge fans would suck air into the axial tube from the cloud tops. Once in the axial tube the air would heat up enough to evaporate water droplets (because of the intense sunlight in the axis), so it would be transparent and wouldn't significantly block the passage of light through the axis. The air would then be pulled out of the asteroid, cooled in a gigantic heat exchanger, probably filtered, and the air would be readmitted into the interior, probably at the ground level. Think of the energy a system like this would take! If the system were reversed and air were taken out at ground level, cooled, and blown back into the asteroid through the central axial tube, you'd get clouds and rain real fast! So rather than computer modeling the weather, one would be computer controling the weather instead.
I think you will find that the energy demands for a system like this is mind-boggling. A six mile diameter, ten mile long cylinder is 10 kilometers by 16, the diameter produces a circumference of 31 kilometers, so the surface area inside is something like 496 square kilometers or 4,960,000 square meters. Assuming 1 kilowatt of sunlight per square meter, that's 5 million continuous kilowatts of sunlight, which becomes 5 million continuous kilowatts of heat to remove from the interior. A damn big air conditioner! It probably would require 1,000 square kilometers of radiator panels outside the asteroid!
- RobS
]]>Meteorology within an O'Neill Cylinder may not yet have been analyzed. If so, what a great subject for some up and coming meteorologist to tackle.
*I couldn't agree more. I've seen a different illustration -- a "cutaway" artist's conception -- of clouds within an O'Neill Cylinder. They were portrayed as nimbus in appearance...but of course the artist may have known as much about meterology as I do...which isn't saying much. :laugh:
OC's interest me very much. Seems they are unfortunately considered something along the lines of curiosity relics of yesteryear.
--Cindy
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