Rain making technology ?

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mr friendly guy
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Rain making technology ?

Post by mr friendly guy »

The question is, does such technology work and how viable is it?

An example of such tech being used in China

bbc
Relations between neighbouring Chinese cities have become stormy over the use of controversial technology which encourages rainfall.

Drought-stricken central Henan province has been using a method called cloud seeding, in which chemicals are shot at clouds, the China Daily reported.

The method did bring rain to Henan - but not equally to all areas.

Meteorological officials in one city accused neighbouring colleagues of over-using the method, the paper said.

The five cities of Pingdingshan, Zhumadian, Luohe, Xuchang and Zhoukou have all been suffering from drought, but were finally blessed with rain as a result of cloud seeding on Saturday, the China Daily reported.

However, while Pingdingshan received more than 100mm of rainfall, less than 30mm fell on Zhoukou.

One Zhoukou official accused Pingdingshan of intercepting clouds that would probably have drifted to other places.

"They (Pingdingshan) were still launching rockets to make rain when they already had rain falling," he is reported as saying.

Cloud seeding is a long-practised technology which uses rockets, planes, cannons or ground generators to fire particles, usually silver iodide, into clouds to encourage water vapour to gather round them and eventually fall as rain.
I suggest clicking on the link to see the graphical illustration.
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Zor
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Post by Zor »

Yes, it does work so long as there are clouds present.

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Nephtys
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Post by Nephtys »

The technique has been around since the seventies, or maybe earlier. It was done then usually by having a slower prop cargo plane just dump salt out it's back as it flew over clouds, so that the particles as they descend can collect condensation.

It only works under certain conditions, namely if the water is there, but things to condense on are not.
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Post by mr friendly guy »

So could China be accused of "stealing" another countries rain? Another article I read said that South Korea had "questions" but haven't made any accusations at present.
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.

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