Written by Susana Garcia
Expanded by Emil Koch
This approach is known as a weather change utilized in a few international locations, which modifies the atmospheric method to regulate nearby climate situations.
Some techniques used in this meteorological alteration are: silver iodide, sodium chloride, or carbon dioxide within the clouds, those kinds of substances paintings within the clouds as condensation nuclei, promoting the formation of raindrops, relying at the wind and atmospheric temperature.
The technique of this seeding might be very interesting, first the specialists discover a cloud, check it and load a drone with a number of the ones substances.
Then they spread it over the cloud and it's going to boom in size, which reasons it to be loaded with water and discharges it as rain.
The motive of cloud seeding varies relying at the climate scenario, the seeding technique changed into first carried out with the aid of Vincent Joseph Shaefer in the United States, initiated meteorological experimentation and weather monitoring, and its use for vegetation and to growth eating water.
Over the years there has been numerous researches at the achievement of cloud seeding, in some instances it can be a help for the weather, however it's far predicated upon on weather situations, the usage of this approach leaves an environmental and moral hassle, as there may be modifications in rainfall patterns, water fantastic and there may be worldwide conflicts with water distribution.
In some international locations, this planting is hassle to protocols and pointers to avoid horrible impact at the surroundings.
This planting technique is applied in numerous international locations, but its prolonged-term effectiveness is problem to speak about and take a look at.
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Susana Garcia rightly brings up the controversial topic of cloud seeding. Can cloud seeding counteract climate change? But do we need global regulations given the consequential change of rainfall patterns, thus, the potential shortage of water in other regions? Let's look at what recent research studies tell us.
Interestingly, statistically proving the artificial precipitation enhancement effect isn't straightforward. This difficulty arises because our comprehension of the physical processes and mechanisms governing clouds and precipitation remains limited, and our ability to detect them is constrained by methodological limitations. Additionally, these limitations impede the design and implementation of schemes, as well as the applicability of statistical methods.
Susana Garcia rightly brings up the controversial topic of cloud seeding. Can cloud seeding counteract climate change? But do we need global regulations given the consequential rainfall patterns change, thus, the potential shortage of water in other regions? Let's look at what recent research studies tell us.
The methodology employed here merges both statistical and physical approaches, leveraging extensive rainfall data from unseeded periods (1981–2002) and seeded periods (2003–2019) alongside polarimetric radar data. Through historical target/control regression analysis, an average 23% increase in rainfall linked to seeding is identified, with statistically significant change points observed in 2011, marking shifts in rainfall trends before and after this year.
Most significantly, however, were the increases in storm echo volume (159%), area cover (72%), and lifetime (65%).
This prompts the question of whether cloud seeding has the potential to mitigate climate warming in arid regions and alleviate air pollution, given the cooling and purification effects that typically follow thunderstorms.
Indeed, in 2015, a research team from MIT analyzed rain's coagulation efficiency, which refers to the droplet's capacity to attract particles while descending. Their findings indicated that smaller droplets exhibited a higher propensity to attract particles. Moreover, they observed that conditions characterized by low relative humidity appeared to foster coagulation.
This goes in line with a 2020 study by Ku et al., where preliminary results suggest that cloud seeding might reduce fine dust concentration - air pollution. Then, the question remains to what extent it can counteract global warming.
A group of scientists investigated whether cirrus cloud seeding might help cool the earth. They used a series of simulations of climate models and found that cirrus seeding might lower temperature and precipitation, attributed to the gradual, temperature-mediated slowing down of the water cycle, contrasting with previous findings of minor precipitation increases from rapid responses to seeding. Furthermore, cirrus seeding reduces climate damage significantly, resulting from CO2 increases across all considered land regions. However, more research is required about the specific properties of the seeded particles, their injection strategies, upper tropospheric diffusion, and mixing or impacts on mixed-phase clouds, as well as addressing engineering problems.
In conclusion, while cloud seeding appears to be an interesting potential tool to mitigate climate warming, more regulations and research should be aimed at enacting a global climate strategy informed by science.
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References:
Susana Garcia. (2024, April 23). A really arguable meteorological manipulation, cloud seeding. Academic Research Cl. https://www.academicsresearchclub.com/post/a-really-arguable-meteorological-manipulation-cloud-seeding.
Wu, X., Yan, N., Yu, H., Niu, S., Meng, F., Liu, W., & Sun, H. (2018). Advances in the evaluation of cloud seeding: Statistical evidence for the enhancement of precipitation. Earth and Space Science, 5, 425–439. https://doi.org/10.1029/ 2018EA000424.
Hosari, T. A., Mandous, A. A., Wehbe, Y., Shalaby, A., Shamsi, N. A., Naqbi, H. A., Yazeedi, O. A., Mazroui, A. A., & Farrah, S. (2021). The UAE Cloud Seeding Program: A Statistical and Physical evaluation. Atmosphere, 12(8), 1013. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12081013.
Can rain clean the atmosphere? (2015, August 28). MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2015/rain-drops-attract-aerosols-clean-air-0828.
Ku, J.M., Chang, KH., Chae, S. et al. Preliminary Results of Cloud Seeding Experiments for Air Pollution Reduction in 2020. Asia-Pac J Atmos Sci 59, 347–358 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-023-00315-7.
Gasparini, B., McGraw, Z., Storelvmo, T., & Lohmann, U. (2020). To what extent can cirrus cloud seeding counteract global warming? Environmental Research Letters, 15(5), 054002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab71a3.
Education, U. C. F. S. (n.d.). Cirrus Clouds | Center for Science Education. UCAR. https://scied.ucar.edu/image/cirrus-clouds. (04/26/2024)
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