Storm Size?

[foodchain]

Is it possible that possibly forms of matter/energy interactions only become such at certain scales? This relates to an earlier question I had about potential energy wells.

 

I have an interest in the reality of looking at the possibility of circular or regular patterns of well interaction giving a certain regular source of energy. Such as say a global warming example. I think if you could get a system of stable or “live” wells occurring overall it would be neat if you could make it visible, say with a colored smoke or fine dust.

[Fred56]

I'm not all that knowledgeable about meteorology, but I believe such things can be found all over the planet. Apart from the atmospheric "vortices", there are such things in the ocean -the current that carries warm water up to the Arctic Ocean (the Gulf Stream) sinks somewhere near Greenland, and there is a vortex, or well, that carries the cooled current (more saline because water is extracted as ice, which remains on the surface), to the bottom where it begins its return journey to the south pole. Apparently someone found several of these back in the 70's, and has since discovered that many have disappeared, leaving just the one (that he could find).

 

Anyway, I don't think these things produce energy, but are "driven" by the energy (heat, chemical gradients) in the atmosphere and oceans. They are the "effect" of energy moving around, due to temperature gradients, Coriolis forces, adiabatics, and generally rotating bodies (of air, water, and of course, the earth itself). It gets pretty complicated up there in the atmosphere, and we haven't mapped out all that much of it, or the oceans either. But we have, I think, a good general understanding of what makes it tick. The model isn't very fine-grained though, as yet.

 

Of course, harnessing the energy in one of these weather systems is another story, in which case you could say that they "produce" energy.

[Klaynos]

To the OP.

 

Yes, most forces have an "effective range" which is the range over which they are strongest. It changes depending on which of the 4 forces you are considering and the geometry... the effective range of a charge dipole is different to that of a monopole.