Reverse cloud seeding?

[bdk]

Did cloud seeding ever work in the US? Is it still being done here? Has this process been proven or is it snake oil?

China to try to engineer perfect Games weather

BEIJING, July 6 (Reuters) - The weather forecast for Beijing's August 2008 Olympics Games will be fine and sunny. And any dark, ominous-looking clouds will be immediately zapped from the heavens.

At least, that's the theory.

Next month, the city plans to fine-tune "rain prevention" techniques to ensure good weather prevails during the Games, state media reported on Friday.

"We are still in the experimental stage," the China Daily quoted Zhang Qiang, an official in charge of the capital's artificial rain-making and prevention programme, as saying.

"The lack of rain so far this summer is making it difficult to conduct more experiments and collect enough data. We need more rain," Zhang said.

China's Olympic hosts fear the normally bone-dry capital's stormy August weather could put a damper on the Games, and worry that an untimely deluge could affect the opening ceremony on Aug. 8 at the uncovered National Stadium.

Beijing, which is chronically short of water, is well-practiced at firing chemical-infused rockets into clouds to prompt a much-needed downpour, but organisers concede rain prevention remains a much tougher prospect.

Wang Yubin, a Beijing meteorologist, said the weather bureau would use "catalytic agents to force rain clouds to burst, should there be any, hours before the (opening) ceremony", to ensure good weather.

But the risk of an inaccurate weather forecast remained a concern.

"The forecast will have to be fairly accurate or we will not be able to fulfil our mission ... Cloud dispersal is more difficult than seeding, and we are working on it," the paper quoted Wang as saying.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=reu-chinaweather&prov=reuters&type=lgns

[Tulio]

From reading old magazines from the 1940s and 1950s, I recall that cloud seeding with silver nitrate, was somewhat successful.

There was also something regarding weather modification during the VietNam war, but I don't know what ever came out from the experiments.

The principle is simple, as explained to me during meteorology class: Provide the clouds, with a "nucleus" so that every water molecule can cluster around it, and eventually the weight of the molecules will cause the drop to fall, ergo: rain.

Some methods used a modified saline solution, or finely ground salt, IIRC.


Saludos,


Tulio

[RyanShort1]

I know a guy that still does cloud seeding here in TX, but I think that the program's about to end in a year or so. - It's not like we need it right now for sure!

Ryan

[King]

It is still done all over the US.

20 years ago, we had the University of North Dakota based here for 5 or 6 months doing cloud seeding. I went on a bunch of flights with them in a Cessna 340. They also had a Beech Duke here.

We only got struck by lightning once in the 340 and it did a number on the airplane. You shouldn't get struck by lightning as they target clouds in the 20K range and not much higher than that.