The real-life twisters still puzzle scientists with their mysterious devastating capabilities. To understand them better, the scientists are taking up several methods and models inside the labs. One of these, are the tiny igloos capable of amazingly generating “micro-tornadoes” in the lab.
The millimeters across translucent igloos are made of tiny water droplets and plastic balls. While evaporating on Petri dishes, the crystalline domes create micro-tornadoes under their roofs, which are just roughly ‘half the width’ of a human hair!
Similarly, the scientists predict, the real-life tornadoes are natural engines, in which warm, humid air rises upward from the ground into the colder atmosphere. And, in the process, it converts heat into mechanical violence creating the world’s most powerful winds.
Researcher Andrei Sommer, a senior scientist at the University of Ulm in Germany said,
Knowledge of the relative importance of these factors and of their precise interplay implies the potential to better predict tornadoes.
Since these micro-tornadoes are formed under conditions identical to the real twisters, it suggests the mechanism that gives birth to the devastating capabilities of the powerful winds.
Photo: Fox News