How UAE Creates Artificial Rain, Linked To Dubai Weather Chaos

New Delhi:

Dubai, recognized for its arid local weather and blistering temperatures, was battered by torrential rain on Tuesday, triggering widespread flooding all through the desert nation. The unexpected downpour not solely halted the bustling metropolis’s regular tempo but in addition sparked worries in regards to the escalating affect of local weather change on excessive climate phenomena within the space.

Within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), annual rainfall averages lower than 200 millimetres. With temperatures hovering to as excessive as 50 levels Celsius in the course of the summer time, the UAE’s water sources are below immense strain, compounded by its heavy reliance on groundwater sources.

To fight this urgent problem, the UAE pioneered revolutionary options, one in all which is producing synthetic rain by means of cloud seeding, a type of climate modification geared toward enhancing precipitation. However, how does it work? 

Understanding Cloud Seeding

Cloud seeding is a way that includes introducing “seeding brokers” into clouds to stimulate the condensation course of and set off rainfall. The method begins with climate forecasters on the NCM monitoring atmospheric circumstances and figuring out appropriate clouds for seeding based mostly on precipitation patterns.

The UAE first examined cloud seeding in 1982. By the early 2000s, the Gulf nation’s synthetic rain program had been bolstered by collaborative scientific and technical analysis with the Nationwide Heart for Atmospheric Analysis (NCAR) in Colorado, USA, Witwatersrand College in South Africa, and NASA. 

The UAE’s Rain Enhancement Program (UAEREP), managed by the Emirates’ Nationwide Centre of Meteorology (NCM), spearheads this system.

The scientists behind this program centered on analysing the bodily and chemical traits of the UAE’s environment, notably aerosols and pollution, and their affect on cloud formation. The intention was to establish an efficient agent to stimulate cloud progress and in the end increase rainfall.

As soon as conducive clouds are recognized, specialised plane outfitted with hygroscopic flares take to the skies. These flares, mounted on the plane’s wings, include salt materials elements. Upon reaching the goal clouds, the flares are deployed, releasing the seeding agent into the cloud.

The salt particles function nuclei round which water droplets condense, finally rising heavy sufficient to fall as precipitation within the type of rain.

“The NCM has established a nationwide community of 86 automated climate stations (AWOS) for climate monitoring, six climate radars masking your complete UAE, and one higher air station. The Centre has additionally created local weather databases and assisted within the improvement of excessive precision Numerical Climate Predictions and simulation software program within the UAE,” the UAEREP’s description of the method reads. 

“At current, the NCM operates 4 Beechcraft King Air C90 plane from Al Ain Airport outfitted with the most recent applied sciences and units employed for cloud seeding and atmospheric analysis.” 

Environmental Considerations

Regardless of the potential advantages of cloud seeding, issues have been raised about its environmental affect and the protection of the seeding brokers used. In response, the NCM has taken measures to make sure the protection and sustainability of its operations.

In contrast to another nations’ cloud seeding applications that utilise silver iodide, a crystal-like materials that has raised environmental issues, the UAE’s program refrains from utilizing dangerous chemical compounds. As a substitute, it employs pure salts as seeding brokers.

The NCM has developed its personal seeding agent often called nano materials, consisting of effective salt coated with titanium oxide. This materials is presently present process trials and experimentation to evaluate its effectiveness in enhancing precipitation

There have been different issues over “tinkering” with nature. With the area experiencing distinctive climate circumstances like storms and heavy rainfall, inflicting unprecedented floods, some have warned towards meddling with the pure order of issues, claiming that the floods are nature’s means of “pushing again”.