The Chinese brought rain with drones.

30 swimming pools in 1 day

Karolina Majchrzak INteria/Chinese-led rain drones

Chinese scientists announced the success of their last weather modification experimentation in the Sinciang region. With just 1 kilo of silver iodide, they managed to make over 70 million litres of extra rain, which corresponds to the volume of 30 Olympic pools!

Sowing clouds is simply a form of modification of the weather to effort to change the amount or kind of precipitation. By spraying the substances serving as condensation nuclei or crystallization embryos, most frequently silver iodide, dry ice, and late besides salt, changes in microphysical processes inside the cloud are caused. And although this method raises much controversy, among others, due to the possible harm of silver iodide to human and another mammals' wellness at intense or prolonged exposure, now more than 20 countries worldwide practice operational cloud planting.

Drones change weather precisely

The largest system, on the another hand, is China, where the seeding is carried out by firing rockets with silver iodide and late besides drones.. According to South China Morning Post, Beijing has just conducted a evidence experimentation in this area in Sinciang, covering more than 8,000 square kilometres and utilizing silver iodide-throwing drones at about 5500 m. Let us clarify here that it is simply a region facing desertification and melting of glaciers in the Tienshan Mountains, which are a origin of water for more than 25 million people.

According to the publication, 2 medium-sized drones took place on 4 flights, releasing silver iodide in the form of smoke at 0.28 grams per second. This allowed for a 4% increase in rainfall in this place, and all this in 1 day. What's more, to carry out the full operation and call 70 million litres of additional rain was adequate silver iodide contained in an average thermal cup, or about 1 kg.

As scientists emphasize, drone operations are a lot safer than conventional aviation methods and allows precise control of the area of actionso it is possible to modify the weather even in hard weather conditions and throughout the year.

This shows the large possible of precisely planned operations utilizing drones and advanced atmospheric chemistry –

comments Chinese researchers.

Bigger drops and cooler clouds

To verify the effectiveness of the experiment, scientists utilized 3 methods: Raindrop measurements, satellite data analysis and computer simulations. The results were clear, i.e. the drop diameter increased from 0.46 mm to 3.22 mm, the peaks of the clouds cooled by up to 10°C, and the clouds grew vertically by over 3 kilometres.

Simulations and historical data showed compatibility with reality, climate analysis showed that the experimentation gave an average rainfall increase of 3.8 percent, while computer models predicted 4.3 percent, i.e. the consequence practically identical to the real effect.