Context
State government responds to frequent droughts in Vidarbha with a three-year cloud seeding experiment
Investigating an old question
During monsoon 2017, weather scientists will fly airplanes loaded with silver iodide over clouds hovering above Solapur, Maharashtra and will begin a three-year investigation into an old question: does cloud seeding produce sufficient rain?
The programme
The programme will account for the variability of the monsoon and quantify the extent to which clouds form water drops large enough to make rain.
- The move is part of a larger experiment of the Earth Sciences Ministry to understand how clouds and aerosols interact and influence climate.
How it will be done?
Scientists will fly two aircraft and spray dry ice and silver iodide on 100 clouds and compare them with 100 unseeded clouds. Ground radar will track the clouds and verify which ones contributed rain.
Cost of the programme: ₹250-crore.
It is coordinated by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.
How cloud seeding works?
China: Ahead of the pack
China used the technique during the 2008 Olympics to steer rain away from the inaugural venue and now has a full-fledged department that blasts rockets into clouds to induce rain and control pollution.
