{"id":33851,"date":"2023-05-14T21:41:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=33851"},"modified":"2023-05-14T21:47:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T21:47:55","slug":"cloud-seeding-can-increase-rain-and-snow-and-new-techniques-may-make-it-a-lot-more-effective-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/cloud-seeding-can-increase-rain-and-snow-and-new-techniques-may-make-it-a-lot-more-effective-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud seeding can increase rain and snow, and new techniques may make it a lot more effective \u2013\u00a0podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daniel Merino<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em> and Nehal El-Hadi<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When an unexpected rainstorm leaves you soaking wet, it is an annoyance. When a drought leads to fires, crop failures and water shortages, the significance of weather becomes vitally important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could control the weather, would you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small amounts of rain can mean the difference between struggle and success. For nearly 80 years<\/a>, an approach called cloud seeding has, in theory, given people the ability to get more rain and snow from storms and make hailstorms less severe. But only recently have scientists been able to peer into clouds and begin to understand how effective cloud seeding really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this episode of \u201cThe Conversation Weekly,\u201d we speak with three researchers about the simple yet murky science of cloud seeding, the economic effects it can have on agriculture, and research that may allow governments to use cloud seeding in more places. https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/60087127b9687759d637bade\/64536722a66d2600116de8f4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/cdn.theconversation.com\/infographics\/561\/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f\/site\/index.html\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Katja Friedrich<\/a>, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the U.S., is a leading researcher on cloud seeding. \u201cWhen we do cloud seeding, we are looking for clouds that have tiny super-cooled liquid droplets,\u201d she explains. Silver iodide is very similar in structure to an ice crystal. When the droplets touch a particle of silver iodide, \u201cthey freeze, then they can start merging with other ice crystals, become snowflakes and fall out of the cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the process is fairly straightforward, measuring how effective it is in the real world is not, according to Friedrich. \u201cThe problem is that once we modify a cloud, it\u2019s really difficult to say what would\u2019ve happened if you hadn\u2019t cloud-seeded.\u201d It\u2019s hard enough to predict weather without messing with it artificially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Cloud seeding is usually done by planes equipped with devices \u2013 like the one attached to the wing of this plane \u2013 that spray silver iodide into the atmosphere. Zuckerle\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Friedrich\u2019s research group had a breakthrough in measuring the effect of cloud seeding. \u201cWe flew some aircraft, released silver iodide and generated these clouds that were like these six exact lines that were downstream of where the aircraft were seeding,\u201d she says. They then had a second aircraft fly through the clouds. \u201cWe could actually quantify how much snow we could produce<\/a> by two hours of cloud seeding.\u201d That effect, according to research on cloud seeding, is an increase in precipitation of somewhere around 5% to 20% or 30%, depending on conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Measuring the effect on precipitation \u2013 whether rain or snow \u2013 directly may have taken complex science and a bit of luck, but in places that have been using cloud seeding for long periods of time, the economic benefits are shockingly clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean Bangsund<\/a> is a researcher at North Dakota State University who studies the economics of agriculture. \u201cWe have a high amount of hail damage in North Dakota,\u201d said Bangsund. For decades, the state government has been using cloud seeding to reduce hail damage, as cloud seeding leads to the formation of more pieces of smaller hail compared to fewer pieces of larger hail. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t 100% eliminate hail; it\u2019s designed to soften the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every 10 years, the state of North Dakota does an analysis on the economic impacts of the cloud seeding<\/a> program, measuring both reduction in hail damage and benefits from increased rain. Bangsund led the last report and says that for every dollar spent on the cloud seeding program, \u201cwe are looking at something that is anywhere from $8 or $9 in benefit on the really lowest scale, up to probably $20 of impact per acre.\u201d With millions of acres of agricultural fields in the cloud seeding area, that is a massive economic benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Freidrich and Bangsund emphasized that cloud seeding, while effective in some cases, cannot be used everywhere. There is also a lot of uncertainty in how much of an effect it has. One way to improve the effectiveness and applicability of cloud seeding is by improving the seed. Linda Zou<\/a> is a professor of civil infrastructure and environmental engineering at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her work has focused on developing a replacement for silver iodide, and her lab has developed what she calls a nanopowder<\/a>. \u201cI start with table salt, which is sodium chloride,\u201d says Zou. \u201cThis desirable-sized crystal is then coated with a thin nanomaterial layer of titanium dioxide.\u201d When salt gets wet, it melts and forms a droplet that can efficiently merge with other droplets and fall from a cloud. Titanium dioxide attracts water. Put the two together and you get a very effective cloud-seeding material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From indoor experiments, Zou found that \u201cwith the nanopowders, there are 2.9 times the formation of larger-size water droplets.\u201d These nanopowders can also form ice crystals at warmer temperatures and less humidity than silver iodide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Zou says, \u201cif the material you are releasing is more reactive and can work in a much wider range of conditions, that means no matter when you decide to use it, the chance of success will be greater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood. Mend Mariwany is the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio<\/a>, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom<\/a> or via email<\/a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation\u2019s free daily email here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to \u201cThe Conversation Weekly\u201d via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed<\/a> or find out how else to listen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Daniel Merino<\/a>, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation<\/a><\/em> and Nehal El-Hadi<\/a>, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation When an unexpected rainstorm leaves you soaking wet, it is an annoyance. When a drought leads to fires, crop failures and water shortages, the significance of weather becomes vitally important. If you could control the weather, would you? Small amounts of rain can mean the difference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":33852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1862,118],"tags":[216,3838,139,4192,170,215,14040,4392,7257,9368,6096,4193,5520,9748,169,256],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33853,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33851\/revisions\/33853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}