Cloud Giants Again Making It Rain
Secrets of the trade:How can we control the weather condition and then information technology rains where we need it to? Jonathan Hare investigates deject seeding
The groovy scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla recalls in his biography how he was walking in the Alps one twenty-four hours when he saw how a flash of lightning triggered the storm clouds to start raining. This inspired him to envisage a future where giant homo-made electrical machines would exist used to control the conditions. Although Tesla did invent generators that could create millions of volts, so far we take not yet been able to utilise them to make pelting to order. Although physicists and engineers tin can't yet control the clouds, chemists believe they can by using a process called 'cloud seeding'.
There are areas in the globe where the annual rainfall is a crucial factor in determining if people are able to live in the region. The problem is not ever simply a lack of clouds. Sometimes clouds form, but the local geography doesn't always create the right conditions for the clouds to produce pelting. There are other regions where clouds bring too much rain. In both cases scientists accept been able to strength the clouds to rain — to 'seed' them — to driblet their water.
How information technology works
The basic thought is very simple: small crystals of ice naturally occur in clouds and these provide the nucleation sites for drops of h2o to form. However these don't always form in enough quantities to cause precipitation — ie pelting. In cloud seeding we choose a substance that has a similar crystal structure to ice and drib this into the cloud to kickoff the rain-making procedure.
In theory, seeding a cloud in the tropics (the 'warm rain' process) requires a different procedure from seeding a cloud in a temperate zone similar the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland (the 'common cold pelting' procedure) and so different seeding techniques are used. Both silver iodide and dry water ice (solid COii) have been used to seed clouds. Between ten–50 g of silver iodide are required for each cloud seeding experiment (approximately 11,000 kg each year).
Find out more
Learn more than near silver and the many uses of its compounds with this article from Education in Chemistry.
Learn more nigh silver and the many uses of its compounds with this commodity fromEducation in Chemistry (http://rsc.li/1aqbH4O).
Forming crystals
The seeding procedure can be achieved by dropping silver iodide solution into a deject from a airplane. The solution evaporates, forming small nucleation crystals that crusade the cloud to create pelting. Alternatively, guns or rockets can be used to fire a chemical 'bomb' into the cloud that explodes, seeding rain. Cloud seeding for hail and fog suppression is widely used at airports.
At the 2008 Summertime Olympics, China claimed that cloud seeding was used to guarantee dry weather for the games. Clouds were seeded far off and so that they dropped the main bulk of their water before arriving at the stadium in Beijing. One estimate suggests the Chinese as well used over 1000 seeding rockets from dozens of sites around the city just before the games, to make sure it didn't rain on the opening 24-hour interval or during major events.
Stolen pelting
Seeding projects can often be controversial. In the Himalayan regions some countries experience that neighbours are finer 'stealing' rainwater from them past seeding clouds, forcing them to drop their water early. Some scientists are concerned that if this process is not advisedly controlled it could lead to climate problems over the whole region.
Did you know?
The wettest identify in the earth is Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India. Information technology receives xi.87 chiliad of rain each year, generally between June and September. By comparison, almanac rainfall in London is just under 0.65 k.
Orignially published in The Mole
Source: https://edu.rsc.org/feature/trade-secrets--making-it-rain-/3007418.article
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