Unusual artificial rain in the United Arab Emirates

Over the past few weeks, to alleviate the heat that has reached 50 degrees, the United Arab Emirates government has artificially created heavy rains or flooded some roads, causing some problems for motorists. Some techniques have been used to take advantage of these rainfall Cloud seeding, Thereby using specific methods or chemical agents that interact with the clouds to induce precipitation or increase its magnitude.

The United Arab Emirates is one of the least rainy countries in the world, and since the 1990s the government has invested tens of thousands of euros equally in developing these types of techniques.

Of techniques Cloud seeding “Sowing” (Sowing, In fact) clouds containing jets of silver iodide or dry ice (carbon dioxide in solid state) fired from special planes at a certain altitude: at the right level and at the right humidity levels, these chemical agents condense and therefore cause or increase precipitation.

These methods have been used for a long time in various countries, including the United States and China: they not only help to increase rainfall, but also facilitate agriculture, reduce pollution and have a clear sky, as has happened. 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the United Arab Emirates, these operations are managed by the National Meteorological Center, which, among others, has the task of monitoring the most promising clouds treated by these methods.

Last week the National Weather Service of the Emirates released some videos of the rainy season on social media. Cloud seeding: Pictures completely different from the usual climate of the country, where it rains 10 centimeters a year.

Another video, shared by the National Weather Service, shows water stagnant, making it difficult for many motorists to cross the road.

In 2017 alone, the government invested the equivalent of 12. 12.6 million in nine different test projects, namely using drones to promote rain to strike electricity into the clouds.

Come on He had explained BBC A few months ago, Professor Martin Ambom, who worked on the reading program, planned to use electricity to “calm the droplets and stay in sync” to create rain: sometimes due to static electricity, such as combing dry hair with a brush, Ambam said.

According to available data, 180 and 245 flights a year have been operated in the United Arab Emirates in recent years. Cloud seeding. Sunday news site Gulf today Wrote The National Weather Service has managed at least 126 operations since the beginning of 2021, including at least 14 in the previous five or six days.

– Also read: How China wants to control the weather

Plans for now Cloud seeding They have had some success at the Emirates, but many scientists suspect that these techniques will have a significant impact on rainfall, certainly not without risk or high cost. Some studies QuotedIndependent Have shown that Cloud seeding Rainfall can increase production by 5 to 70 percent depending on cloud conditions; Other Quotes Yes SubInstead, they have shown that some of the components in the chemicals used to sow clouds are toxic to aquatic organisms. At the same time, it is very difficult to understand whether the planted clouds would have behaved differently without human intervention.

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Anyway, how he said A National Omar Ali Acidi, an expert at the National Meteorological Center, said the biggest problem is not being able to determine the chances of a surgery being successful and not being able to understand which clouds will produce more rain or how much rain will fall. For this, in addition to funding various projects Cloud seedingThe government invests in various facilities and techniques to protect and purify rainwater that falls without interruption.