ANAGHA S MOHAN

EGE052005
☻Artificial precipitation does not mean precipitation from artificially created clouds.
☻Science has not developed to that state to artificially create rain giving clouds at a
desired place and time.[Nimbus clouds are clouds that produce precipitation that reach the ground in the
form of rain, snow or hail.]

☻Artificial precipitation is a process where by precipitation is procured by artificially

saturating a special type of cloud.
☻This process is also called artificial seeding of the clouds or artificial modification of
clouds.
☻Clouds consists of tiny droplets of water which are generally so light weight and
small sized.
☻They are withheld by the updrafts of air in the atmosphere.
☻Such microscopically small cloud droplets are not capable of falling on the surface
of the earth.
☻But when these cloud particles coalesce by various processes, they grow larger in
size and start falling on ground in the form of precipitation.
☻Therefore ,Artificial Precipitation involves the joining together of microscopic
cloud particles so that they grow in size and ultimately fall to ground by their
weight.
☻Cloud seeding is a traditional method of artificial precipitation used since 1940.
☻In 1946, After 2nd world war, V.J Schaefer and E. Langmuir discovered that certain
types of cloud could be modified to produce precipitation.
☻They dropped DRY ICE from an aero plane into a supercooled cloud over New
England which within no time resulted in the growth of ice crystals.
☻However, the falling drops of precipitation evaporated before reaching the ground.
☻Similar experiments were conducted in Australia with partial success.
☻This convinced the scientists that the supercooled layers of clouds as well as
cumulus clouds in a particular way can be converted into ice clouds.
☻B. Vonnegut (1949) discovered another method of artificial precipitation.
☻His notable discovery was that at a temperature below -5 degree Celsius, Silver
Iodide(AgI) could also be used for cloud seeding.
☻The fine powder of AgI acts as a nuclei which produce ice crystals.
☻AgI smoke is introduced into suitable clouds by aero planes or by use of explosive
rockets or balloons.
☻The special characteristic of AgI is that when it is heated to high temperature ,it
gets converted into vapor.
☻After cooling, the vapor produces 0.01 micron diameter sized tiny crystals.
☻When these crystals are introduced into supercooled clouds, the entire cloud is
immediately converted into ICE CLOUDS.
NOTE : The use of AgI is effective only in such clouds that have potential for natural
precipitation.
☻There are 2 other techniques for inducing artificial precipitation.

☻BOWEN’S COALESCENCE THEORY : By this method , water droplets of about

50 micron diameter are sprayed into the layers of deep clouds so that they may
grow by sweeping up microscopic cloud particles during upward and
downward movements.

☻INJECTION OF FINELY GROUND SAND : Another technique employed is the

injection of finely ground sand which acts as hygroscopic nuclei.

☻Since these nuclei are always present in adequate number, this technique
simply attempts to increase the proportion of larger nuclei to stimulate rain
drop production in a cloud.
The picture shows a cloud
seeding plane used in San
Luis Obispo (U.S) equipped
with burn in place flares that
release silver iodide.
☻The clouds of great vertical extent must pre exist before any rain making device is
applied to them.
☻According to Best and Mason, cloud seeding cannot unlock the reserves of water
vapor in the atmosphere, since none of the seeding techniques contain any method
for renewing the cloud.
☻Depth of clouds selected for seeding must be exceeding 1500m.
☻The altitude of the bases of such clouds from the ground must be as much as their
vertical thickness.
☻Generally, Nimbus clouds(dark brown appearance) are selected for artificial
precipitation since they are found at a height of 1-2km from the ground.
This figure shows a seeding
aero plane spraying silver
iodide to the atmosphere.
WARM CLOUD SEEDING COLD CLOUD SEEDING

▪ Also called Glycogenic cloud

▪ Also called Hygroscopic cloud
seeding. seeding.
▪ Done by using super cooling agents
▪ Done by using salts like NaCl, CaCl2
at temperatures not cooler than 0 like AgI, Dry Ice at temperatures
degree Celsius producing rain. colder than 0 degree Celsius, thus
producing larger ice crystals.
▪ Climatology by D.S LAL
▪ Google Resources on Cloud seeding
▪ Diagrams: Indonesian Radio