( CNN ) -- Hurricane experts are throwing cold water on an idea backed by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at controlling the weather . Bill Gates and scientists have applied for patents aimed at reducing the strength of oncoming hurricanes . Gates and a dozen other scientists have raised eyebrows by submitting patent applications for a technology to reduce the danger of approaching hurricanes by cooling ocean temperatures . It 's a noble idea , given the horrible memories from Hurricane Katrina , which slammed into the Gulf Coast four years ago this week . The storm , which rated a frightening Category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana , was blamed for $ 81 billion in damaged and destroyed property and the deaths of more than 1,800 men , women and children . Skeptics applaud the motive of the concept but question its feasibility . `` The enormity of it , in order to do something effective , we 'd have to do something at a scale that humans have never really done before , '' said Gabriel Vecchi , a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . How exactly would this hurricane-zapping technology work ? Hurricanes are fueled by warm water , and cooling the waters surrounding a storm would slow a storm 's momentum . According to the patents , many tub-like barges would be placed directly in the path of an oncoming storm . Each barge would have two conduits , each 500 feet long . One conduit would push the warm water from the ocean 's surface down . The other would bring up cold water where it lies deep undersea . World renowned hurricane expert William Gray , who 's been studying and predicting the storms for a half-century , also doubts whether the proposal would work . `` The problem is the storms come up so rapidly , '' said Gray , a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University . `` You only get two to three days warning . It 's very difficult to bring up enough cold water in two to three days to have much effect . '' The idea itself is n't groundbreaking , according to Gray , who said it could only be feasible if the barges were put into place at the beginning of hurricane season with the idea that storms will come . `` But you might do all that , and perhaps no storms would come . That 's an economic problem , '' Gray said . Even if the technology does work , Gray said it wo n't completely halt a hurricane . `` There is no way to stop it . The storm might weaken in the center , but the outer areas would n't be affected much . '' And flooding and storm surges are determined by these outer winds , Gray said . When word of Gates ' five patent applications first made headlines in July , alarmed bloggers lit up the Internet , expressing fears that playing with ocean temperatures could lead to catastrophe , possibly forcing a storm in a different direction . That 's not likely , said Kerry Emanuel , a professor in atmospheric sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . `` You 're doing something to the ocean that the hurricane would have done anyway , '' Emanuel said . Cold water that churns up during a storm slows down a hurricane naturally . But the coldest water is usually at the rear of the storm , so sometimes it 's too late to weaken [ the storm ] , Emanuel said . `` The key is doing it a little sooner than the storm itself does it and make [ the hurricane ] weaker than it would have been , '' he said . `` There are enough experiments to find out whether hurricanes ' natural cooling could steer the storm in a different location , and the answer is no , or it 's a very small chance . '' While Emanuel believes the physics are conceivable , he says the cost of implementing the system should n't outweigh the benefit . `` This would only be practical if the amount [ of money ] you spend doing this would be less than the damage caused by the hurricane , '' Emanuel said . Gates and scientist Ken Caldeira , both listed as inventors on the patents , did not respond to CNN 's requests to comment about their venture . The patents , which were only made public last month by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office , were filed in January by Searete LLC . The company is a subsidiary of Intellectual Ventures , an invention firm run by Microsoft 's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold . A spokeswoman for Intellectual Ventures , which holds about 27,000 technology patents , did n't elaborate on the cost associated with the patent . `` At this point , there are no plans for deployment , so there is no talk of funding , '' she said , adding that it could take up to 18 months for the patent application to be approved . Regardless , inventors say that this technology is not something they 'll be rushing to use anytime soon . `` This type of technology is not something humankind would use as a 'Plan A ' or 'Plan B , ' '' Paul `` Pablos '' Holman , an inventor in the Intellectual Ventures laboratory , wrote on the company blog . `` These inventions are a 'Plan C , ' where humans decide that we 've exhausted all our behavior changing and alternative energy options and need to rely on mitigation technologies . If our planet is in this severe situation , then our belief is that we should not be starting from scratch at investigating mitigation options . '' Hurricane expert Gray agrees . `` I do n't think this is anything that 's going to be done in the next few decades in a practical sense , but maybe further down the line , '' Gray said . `` I would love to see Bill Gates , with all his money , use some of it to experiment . ''
Hurricane experts doubt feasibility of Bill Gates-backed weather-control idea . Idea is `` on a scale that humans have never really done before , '' says NOAA . Score: 6 : It wo n't completely stop hurricanes . Theory : Barges would cool ocean surface sapping energy from oncoming storms .