question gravitational effect asteroids on weather?

[tavor]

some thing i have been thinking about for a while (i have limited to nothing knowledge in this area so bear with me)
earths rotation (gravity field)has a major effect on what makes our weather (hurricanes in particular)
as you know the moons gravity causes low and high tides ,ok this is a big object positioned 400000 km/miles? keep getting that confused
so thinking meteors/ asteroids ,small but a lot of them travel on a close orbit around earth so would any of them have effect on earth weather (bend a weather system crossing atlantic or even gulf stream ? like moon with tides

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

some thing i have been thinking about for a while (i have limited to nothing knowledge in this area so bear with me)
earths rotation (gravity field)has a major effect on what makes our weather (hurricanes in particular)
as you know the moons gravity causes low and high tides ,ok this is a big object positioned 400000 km/miles? keep getting that confused
so thinking meteors/ asteroids ,small but a lot of them travel on a close orbit around earth so would any of them have effect on earth weather (bend a weather system crossing atlantic or even gulf stream ? like moon with tides

Tidal force due to one body acting on another is proportional to the mass of the first body divided by the distance cubed (not squared as we're considering how the gravitational force differs between two separate points) between the bodies' centres of mass. An asteroid 200km across with 0.2 thousands the mass of the Moon (assuming the same density) at one tenth the distance of the Moon (40,000km) would have a tidal effect 0.2 or one fifth that of the Moon so not insignificant. The Sun's tidal effect is just under half that of the Moon because of its much greater distance, even though its mass is much greater. Depending on the angle between the Sun and the Moon, the Sun's tidal force can counteract the Moon's (neap tides for 90°) or reinforce it (spring tides for 0° and 180°). If the asteroid approached within the Roche limit of about 2 Earth radii (about 13,000km) from the surface, it would be torn apart by the Earth's tidal force. The tidal force on the Earth would be about five times that of the Moon so there would likely be effects due to induced stresses in the crust and displacement of water. Deflection of atmospheric weather patterns would be the least of our problems, especially if the asteroid or its debris hit us.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It's safe to say that the weather effects we saw in "The Paradise Syndrome" are, err, highly exaggerated, but I think it might be interesting to try to imagine a mechanism, say one involving multiple bodies and/or involving coupling forces besides just gravitation, that might realistically or plausible account for them. What that mechanism might be, though, I haven't a clue!

 

[Christopher]

Deflection of atmospheric weather patterns would be the least of our problems, especially if the asteroid or its debris hit us.

Asteroidal debris hits the Earth every day. Usually it burns up or explodes in the atmosphere or lands in uninhabited areas. Only about 1% of the Earth's surface (land and water combined) is permanently occupied by human inhabitants, so the odds of a bolide explosion or meteorite impact happening in populated territory are slim. That's why the Chelyabinsk event a few years ago was so unusual, even though bolide explosions like that happen fairly often. The largest such event in recorded history, the Tunguska explosion, happened over uninhabited forest. (Russia is the country most likely to get hit because it has the largest land area of any single country.)

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Asteroidal debris hits the Earth every day. Usually it burns up or explodes in the atmosphere or lands in uninhabited areas. Only about 1% of the Earth's surface (land and water combined) is permanently occupied by human inhabitants, so the odds of a bolide explosion or meteorite impact happening in populated territory are slim. That's why the Chelyabinsk event a few years ago was so unusual, even though bolide explosions like that happen fairly often. The largest such event in recorded history, the Tunguska explosion, happened over uninhabited forest. (Russia is the country most likely to get hit because it has the largest land area of any single country.)

A 200km asteroid and any debris from its tidal disruption don't hit us every day though. Thankfully...

It's safe to say that the weather effects we saw in "The Paradise Syndrome" are, err, highly exaggerated, but I think it might be interesting to try to imagine a mechanism, say one involving multiple bodies and/or involving coupling forces besides just gravitation, that might realistically or plausible account for them. What that mechanism might be, though, I haven't a clue!

The mechanism would likely be maximising imminent jeopardy for protagonists in whom we have invested some amount of empathetic capital. In the real world, I guess giving the bodies enhanced magnetic or electric fields could be deployed as electromagnetism is a much stronger long-range force than gravity (although usually ineffective at very large distances due to overall charge cancelation). The weak and strong nuclear forces are too short range. Whether dark energy could be harnessed remains to be seen as we have no idea what it is (if it actually exists at all - systematic bias recently having been discovered in the analog to digital converters used by CCDs).

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The mechanism would likely be maximising imminent jeopardy for protagonists in whom we have invested some amount of empathetic capital.