by What is Cloud Seeding?
Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances into the air that act as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. The goal of most cloud seeding programs is to increase precipitation, whether in the form of rain or snow.
History of Cloud Seeding
The practice of Cloud Seeding began in the 1940s when scientists discovered that certain substances could induce clouds to produce rain or snow. The first intentional weather modification experiments were carried out in 1946 in Brisbane, Australia. Since then, many countries and states have undertaken cloud seeding research and operations to induce or enhance rainfall or snowfall. Some of the early innovators in cloud seeding research include scientists Vincent Schaefer, Bernard Vonnegut, and Langmuir.
How it Works
There are a few ways that cloud seeding works to encourage precipitation from clouds:
Cold Cloud Seeding – The goal is to get supercooled water droplets in clouds to freeze faster and grow larger, so they fall as snow or rain before evaporating or advecting out of the cloud. Silver iodide flares or generators are used to disperse particles that act as ice nuclei in sub-freezing cloud layers.
Warm Cloud Seeding – Attempts to induce precipitation from warm-based convective clouds that produce most warm season rain. Hygroscopic substances like salt are used to seed the clouds. They absorb moisture and grow large enough to fall as rain before being evaporated or transported away from the cloud.
Glacio-genic Seeding – Involves seeding ice-supercooled clouds to produce more ice and snowfall. Liquid propane is used to generate additional ice crystals. Larger snowflakes form that fall through the cloud layers and produce more precipitation.
The seeding substances are typically dispersed by aircraft flying through target clouds or by ground-based generators located in mountain regions upwind of clouds. The additional ice crystals or cloud condensation nuclei modify cloud dynamics and droplet growth processes to change the microphysics in a way that favors precipitation development.
Benefits and Costs
When successful, Cloud Seeding programs can potentially augment water supplies by increasing rainfall or snowpack. It has been used for decades in many countries and U.S. states to boost water resources from mountain snowpack that melts and feeds reservoirs in the warm season. However, quantifying the true impacts of seeding remains challenging since clouds are extremely variable systems to experiment on.
Economic studies have found that the potential benefits of increased precipitation often outweigh the costs of cloud seeding initiatives, which are relatively low compared to other water projects. Annual seeding program budgets range typically between $100,000 to $1 million depending on the size of operations. A factor in the cost-benefit equation is also whether the program goals are to produce more water quantity or improve water distribution patterns through the season. It allows some degree of short-term human control over weather and water supplies.
Controversies and Criticism
Yet significant skepticism remains in the scientific community regarding the efficacy of rain and snow enhancement through cloud seeding. Studies show mixed results, with some finding small statistically significant increases while others detect no impacts. One challenge is developing a valid experimental design that can account for natural variability in precipitation amounts among treated and untreated control areas over multiple years. Without randomized seeding it’s difficult to say how much of the extra precipitation was directly due to seeding versus random weather fluctuations.
Critics argue the technology has not been proven conclusively and that more research is still needed to understand exactly how seeding truly modifies clouds and precipitation development. There are also concerns about whether seeding may in some cases inhibit natural precipitation downwind by depleting moisture from targeted storm systems. Additional modeling work continues to improve understanding of cloud microphysical responses and the seedability of different cloud types. International commissions established guidelines to ensure any operational programs have acceptable scientific merit and monitoring components.
Future Outlook
Despite the remaining uncertainties, interest in weather modification and cloud seeding is advancing, particularly as a potential way to buffer impacts from droughts and prepare for future changes in precipitation patterns under climate change. Growing water demands are incentive to further test precipitation augmentation methods. New advances in cloud-resolving models, computer processing power, and in-cloud instrumentation like high-frequency radar are moving the science forward. Carefully designed multi-year seeding experiments combined with enhanced observational capabilities hold promise to ultimately yield more conclusive answers on cloud seeding effectiveness. With continued research progress, rain and snow enhancement may increasingly supplement traditional water supply strategies in coming decades.
cloud seeding provides a way to potentially influence hydrometeor formation and alter precipitation from certain cloud types. While controversy persists over the true impacts, advancements in cloud seeding science may one day allow for more widespread and reliable rainfall augmentation. Carefully crafted studies are helping advance understanding of how best to seed different cloud regimes and quantify precipitation responses. As a water management adaptation approach, cloud seeding shows promise but will require ongoing research and monitoring to fully validate its real-world effectiveness for augmenting water resources.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it.
