Fusion Bottle in the Atmosphere

[Imperial528]

Well, that's the problem.

My friend hasn't done out the math, so this could range anywhere from "nothing happens" to "small nuclear bomb continuously going off."

Though what we're really interested in is how plasma would interact with an atmosphere at these temperatures, especially over time, to get a sense of how the environment would be affected when you've got dozens of these things running in an area.

[cadbrowser]

I don't know...do you really have to do the math to find out? I mean, if you think about it, modern sci-fi(ish) settings don't always make sense in light of reality. If you really want some crazy and wierd atmospheric phenomenon in an area due to that time era's power generation, then just do it.

Think about the new Judge Dredd movie that was released in 2012. The main setting takes place in a city of 800 million people called Mega-City One. There is a lot of stuff happening there.

Also consider The Matrix. When Morpheus is telling Neo about the current status of "the real" he mentions that the machines using the energy released by humans is combined with "a form of fusion". No math, no hard science; just a simple explaination.

So, in my mind you have this Corporate Badlands area(s) where in specific spots there is massive electrical disturbances. These are caused by massive plasma plumes releasing exhaust and ionized gasses into the atmosphere (because really the electrodes cannot reliably convert 100% so some escapes.). It may not be the safest or most efficient system but it is what they have now because of "whatever" (no more coal, oil, natural gas...you pick.).

[Irbis]

Though what we're really interested in is how plasma would interact with an atmosphere at these temperatures, especially over time, to get a sense of how the environment would be affected when you've got dozens of these things running in an area.

When you have big difference in air tempetature vs surface temperature, air being warmed and pushed upwards can lead to this. No idea if this device would be energetic enough to create it, but you get the picture.

[cadbrowser]

Though what we're really interested in is how plasma would interact with an atmosphere at these temperatures, especially over time, to get a sense of how the environment would be affected when you've got dozens of these things running in an area.

When you have big difference in air tempetature vs surface temperature, air being warmed and pushed upwards can lead to this. No idea if this device would be energetic enough to create it, but you get the picture.

Now that looks awesome. Combine that with the idea that I was talking about, and you have a very ominous background to play with.

[Beowulf]

Though what we're really interested in is how plasma would interact with an atmosphere at these temperatures, especially over time, to get a sense of how the environment would be affected when you've got dozens of these things running in an area.

When you have big difference in air tempetature vs surface temperature, air being warmed and pushed upwards can lead to this. No idea if this device would be energetic enough to create it, but you get the picture.

What?! No!

Hypercanes require extraordinarily hot water temperatures, not hot air temperatures.

[InsaneTD]

So instead of hot, moist air, uou get hot, dry air and a Dust Devil of massive scale.

[Sky Captain]

How much power this thing would put in the air? A modern day thermal power plant cooling tower vents few GW of waste heat in atmosphere and it do not create anything more severe than plume of steam. Even powerful rockets like Saturn V did not cause any severe weather conditions with several hundred GW of thermal energy.
Obviously there should be some power threshold after which some spectacular weather phenomena start to occur, but I have no idea how much GW of continuous heat would be required.