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What is cloud seeding and how does it work?
Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that improves a cloud’s ability to produce rain or snow by artificially adding condensation nuclei to the atmosphere, providing a base for for snowflakes or raindrops to form.
What are the harmful effects of cloud seeding?
Risks or concerns like unwanted ecological changes, ozone depletion, continued ocean acidification, erratic changes in rainfall patterns, rapid warming if seeding were to be stopped abruptly, airplane effects, to name a few, may just not be bad enough to override the imperative to keep temperatures down.
What are the pros and cons of cloud seeding?
Top 10 Cloud Seeding Pros & Cons – Summary List
| Cloud Seeding Pros | Cloud Seeding Cons |
|---|---|
| Cloud seeding can be applied locally | Cloud seeding can contribute to acid rain |
| Especially helpful in dry regions | Soil pollution related to cloud seeding |
| Can help in case of water scarcity | Cloud seeding can lead to water pollution |
What is cloud seeding definition for kids?
Cloud seeding, which was developed in 1946, is the main scientific technique used to induce condensation in clouds and thus to make them discharge more rain. It involves deliberately adding substances into supercooled clouds, which are clouds composed of water droplets that are at temperatures below freezing.
Is cloud seeding still done?
Israel has been enhancing rain in convective clouds since the 1950s. The practice involves emitting silver iodide from airplanes and ground stations. The seeding takes place only in the northern parts of Israel. Since 2021, Israel stopped the rain enhancement project.
How much does cloud seeding cost?
In the winter of 2018-2019, water managers in Colorado said their central mountains cloud seeding program produced between 80,000 and 90,000 acre feet of water at a cost of $2.70 per acre foot—a bargain in a region where prices per acre foot can reach $30,000.
Who invented cloud seeding?
Vincent Schaefer
Modern-day cloud seeding was launched in the lab of noted surface scientist Irving Langmuir at General Electric in 1946. His colleagues Vincent Schaefer and Bernard Vonnegut, brother of author Kurt, discovered that silver iodide could transform supercooled water vapor into ice crystals at temperatures of –10 to –5 °C.
What countries use cloud seeding?
The UAE oversaw more than 200 cloud seeding operations in the first half of 2020, successfully creating excess rainfall, the National News reported. There have been successes in the U.S., as well as China, India, and Thailand.
What chemicals are used in cloud seeding?
Devised in the late 1940s, cloud seeding is defined as an intentional treatment of clouds to enhance rainfall. When aerially sprayed (with the help of aircraft, and at times rockets), certain chemicals such as sodium chloride (common salt) and silver iodide (another non-toxic chemical) can augment rainfall.
Who does cloud seeding?
The largest cloud seeding system is in the People’s Republic of China. They believe that it increases the amount of rain over several increasingly arid regions, including its capital city, Beijing, by firing silver iodide rockets into the sky where rain is desired.