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Subscribe to International UpdatesChinese Rockets to Combat Rain at Olympics
July 18, 2007 05:56 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Having claimed to bring rain to arid regions of China, Beijing’s Weather Modification Office is set to unleash cloud-busting ordnance to keep the 2008 Olympic Games dry.
30-Second Summary
On July 16, 2007, China’s Meteorological Association announced it would use rockets to destroy any cloud that threatened the blue skies above the ‘08 Olympic Games in Beijing.
State-controlled weather may sound improbable, but Russia used similar techniques to prevent rain at a military parade in 2005.
Plus, China’s Weather Modification Office has recently claimed a number of successes of its own.
In April 2007, China announced a technological first in precipitating snowfall. More than half an inch fell over the city of Nagqu, allegedly thanks to human intervention.
Dry farmlands in northern China are also reported to benefit from “cloud-seeding” technology.
The theory behind the technique is relatively straightforward. Rain forms when small droplets of water in a cloud clump together until they are too large to be suspended in the air. Cloud-seeding introduces particles into the cloud to trigger that process.
Despite China’s optimism regarding Beijing, the efficacy of cloud-seeding is hard to ascertain. To do that, meteorologists would need to be certain that rain wouldn’t have fallen without intervention.
Since weathermen aren’t infallible, no one knows whether China’s rockets really can guarantee blue skies for the Olympics.
State-controlled weather may sound improbable, but Russia used similar techniques to prevent rain at a military parade in 2005.
Plus, China’s Weather Modification Office has recently claimed a number of successes of its own.
In April 2007, China announced a technological first in precipitating snowfall. More than half an inch fell over the city of Nagqu, allegedly thanks to human intervention.
Dry farmlands in northern China are also reported to benefit from “cloud-seeding” technology.
The theory behind the technique is relatively straightforward. Rain forms when small droplets of water in a cloud clump together until they are too large to be suspended in the air. Cloud-seeding introduces particles into the cloud to trigger that process.
Despite China’s optimism regarding Beijing, the efficacy of cloud-seeding is hard to ascertain. To do that, meteorologists would need to be certain that rain wouldn’t have fallen without intervention.
Since weathermen aren’t infallible, no one knows whether China’s rockets really can guarantee blue skies for the Olympics.
Headline Links: China shoots for a dry Olympics
In 2006, USA Today reported on the buzz surrounding the blue-skies promise China has made for the 2008 Olympics. Peasants who already man cloud-busting guns in the battle against drought will pound suspect clouds with rockets containing silver iodide, a commonly used substance in cloud-seeding. Chinese meteorologists hope that that will prevent any dampening of proceedings in the new National Stadium.
Source: USA Today
Reference Material: Does cloud-seeding work?
Daniel Engber of Slate.com explains popular cloud-seeding methods in the light of Russian attempts to prevent rain at a Moscow military parade. Engber concludes, "It's difficult to prove whether cloud seeding actually has any effect."
Source: Slate.com
Background: State-controlled rain and snow
In April 2007, Chinese officials claimed to have successfully created artificial snowfall using cloud-seeding techniques developed in the fight against drought. Engineer Yu Zhongshui asserts, "The first artificial snowfall proves it is possible to change the weather through human efforts on the world's highest plateau."
Source: Reuters
Weather modification is booming in China, as reported by Newsweek. In 2006, Chinese rainmakers initiated a plan for "the creation of 48 billion to 60 billion cubic meters of artificial rain annually," at a time when their work already cost more than $50 million a year. Despite environmental and health concerns, Chinese authorities continue work on the rain-prevention initiative for the 2008 Beijing Olympics—their biggest project yet.
Source: MSNBC
History: U.S. Project Stormfury
Scientists hypothesized in 1964 that seeding the wall of clouds near the eye of a hurricane could significantly reduce its strength. Silver iodide was used to catalyze the formation and condensation of ice crystals. A more detailed explanation of the science behind defusing a hurricane and the attempts of U.S. Project Stormfury to use those techniques are detailed by USA Today.
Source: USA Today
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