Head of Weather Manipulation
The forthcoming Beijing Olympics are causing the Chinese to think very seriously about all eventualities, and one gal with a particularly tough job is Zhang Qian, Head of Weather Manipulation at the Beijing Meteorological Bureau. The Bureau has been charged with developing methods of preventing wet weather spoiling what promises to be a spectacular start to the Games on the evening of August 8.”Our experiments with rain mitigation have been aimed at light rain,” said Zhang Qian, “with heavy rain it is more difficult. The results with light rain have been satisfactory.”
Ms Qian said different strategies were used to stop rain on different types of clouds, but both had proved not to harm the environment.
“For cold clouds below zero degrees, we use a coolant made from liquid nitrogen to increase the number of droplets while decreasing their mean size,” she said “as a result, the smaller droplets are less likely to fall and precipitation can be reduced. For clouds above zero degrees we use the seeding agent silver iodide to accelerate the droplets’ collision and coalescence, producing a downdraft which suppresses the formation of clouds.”
via Slashdot
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