Using Drones for Cloud-Seeding Can Trigger Rain, Company Claims (deseret.com) 24
Monday a company called Rainmaker announced their rain-triggering technology had produced 143 million gallons of freshwater for Utah and Oregon residents — making them "the first private company in history to validate the results of cloud seeding operations."
The Deseret News reports: Founded in 2023, Rainmaker uses drones to disperse silver iodide into clouds, then they track precipitation with advanced radar. However, Rainmaker — and every other rain-enhancement company — has been up against the notoriously difficult challenge of validation. Since there is no control set to test, and because the weather is chaotic and variable, the Government Accountability Office declares the benefits of the technology to be "unproven." To overcome this evaluation challenge, Rainmaker flies drones in unique patterns when seeding. Then operators compare distinct radar and satellite features with where their drones operated.
As of April, Rainmaker found 82 unambiguous seeding signatures, which show their seeding operations directly caused precipitation. In Utah and Oregon alone, the company said its cloud-seeding efforts have added enough water to match the annual usage of about 1,750 households. However, "this figure likely represents only a small fraction of Rainmaker's total generation this season," the company said in their press release... Their drone precision, combined with their radar systems, have produced satellite images proving a direct correlation between the seeding and precipitation. Some images show cloud holes or regions of depressed cloud tops after seeding.
Rainmaker's announcement promises they'll "go forward and continue our mission to refill the Great Salt Lake, end drought in the American West and deliver water abundance wherever it is needed most around the world." (Rainmaker currently operates in Utah, Idaho, Oregon, California and Colorado.)
The director of Utah's Natural Resources Department told the Deseret News that with cloud seeding, "cost per unit of water is so low; it really is the smartest thing we can be doing with our money," Ferry said.
The Deseret News reports: Founded in 2023, Rainmaker uses drones to disperse silver iodide into clouds, then they track precipitation with advanced radar. However, Rainmaker — and every other rain-enhancement company — has been up against the notoriously difficult challenge of validation. Since there is no control set to test, and because the weather is chaotic and variable, the Government Accountability Office declares the benefits of the technology to be "unproven." To overcome this evaluation challenge, Rainmaker flies drones in unique patterns when seeding. Then operators compare distinct radar and satellite features with where their drones operated.
As of April, Rainmaker found 82 unambiguous seeding signatures, which show their seeding operations directly caused precipitation. In Utah and Oregon alone, the company said its cloud-seeding efforts have added enough water to match the annual usage of about 1,750 households. However, "this figure likely represents only a small fraction of Rainmaker's total generation this season," the company said in their press release... Their drone precision, combined with their radar systems, have produced satellite images proving a direct correlation between the seeding and precipitation. Some images show cloud holes or regions of depressed cloud tops after seeding.
Rainmaker's announcement promises they'll "go forward and continue our mission to refill the Great Salt Lake, end drought in the American West and deliver water abundance wherever it is needed most around the world." (Rainmaker currently operates in Utah, Idaho, Oregon, California and Colorado.)
The director of Utah's Natural Resources Department told the Deseret News that with cloud seeding, "cost per unit of water is so low; it really is the smartest thing we can be doing with our money," Ferry said.
What can go wrong? (Score:4)
Re:What can go wrong? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sure there are no side effects of "dispersing silver iodide into clouds."
There really aren't. We've been doing this since the 50s. Every year some 11 tonnes of silver iodide is used for cloud seeding and has been for a long time. Incidentally this is less than 1% of emissions of this substance from industry. The impact of silver iodide (which is toxic) for cloudseeding (which is very low concentration) has been studied extensively since the 60s.
Here's from a metastudy:
The potential environmental impacts of cloud seeding programs using silver iodide have
been studied since the 1960s. These studies have all concluded that ice-nucleating agents,
specifically silver iodide as used in cloud seeding, represent a negligible environmental hazard,
(i.e., findings of no significant effects on plants and animals), (e.g., Cooper & Jolly 1970; Howell
1977; Klein 1978; Dennis 1980; Harris 1981; Todd & Howell 1985; Berg 1988; Reinking et al.
1995; Eliopoulos & Mourelatos 1998; Ouzounidou & Constantinidou 1999; Di Toro et al. 2001;
Bianchini et al. 2002; Tsiouris et al. 2002a; Tsiouris et al. 2002b; Christodoulou et al. 2004;
Edwards et al. 2005; Keyes et al. 2006; Williams & Denholm 2009).
Re: (Score:1)
Besides the trouble that environmentalists have with getting their panties unbunched, not really.
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A drought further east. (Score:2)
Drones Are Irrelevant. This Is Advertisement. (Score:4, Interesting)
We have long had the technology and ability to do cloud seeding. Yet the technique is rarely practiced. Why, because it is typically not enough and does not work where we would like or need.
The use of drones does not solve any problem regarding cloud seeding. We've been able to seed clouds from just after World War 2. Drones offer nothing that a Cessna or crop duster couldn't do better.
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They offer more affordable lifting capacity than a gas-powered aircraft rated for human passengers that also has to haul the weight of a paid pilot to the same altitude.
Re: Drones Are Irrelevant. This Is Advertisement. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Drones offer nothing that a Cessna or crop duster couldn't do better.
They do crop dusting with drones now. It's cheaper.
Re: (Score:3)
Give me a fucking break.
The Air Tractor crop duster has a 3,000 liter tank capacity. The older AG Cats and similar have a capacity ~1,000 liters. The largest crop dusting drones carry ~150 liters. With most of the largest drones maxing out at ~60 liters.
The point is that even very large drones can't come remotely close to the coverage area of a standard aircraft. You'll also find that once drones start reaching the actual size and capacity of traditional aircraft, like 1970's vintage Cessnas and more modern
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They don't need to have the same capacity. They can do takeoffs and landings in essentially zero time, and they can do them from anywhere.
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LOL!
Your expertise on the subject is... something.
No (Score:2)
Water thieves (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Plausible deniability?
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In fact farmers in North Dakota have been complaining about cloud seeding by insurance companies for years. These companies seed clouds that could harbor hail so that it rains out before it can drop hail. Mostly this is to protect urban areas. But the problem is it literally takes the rain away from farms the really need it.
Did they cause the drought in Colorado? (Score:2)
Colorado has been hit hard this year by our lack of snowfall, I wonder if their tests in Utah has robbed Colorado of any rainfall?
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Problems with cloud seeding (Score:3)
Cloud seeding forces clouds to drop whatever moisture they have. This is not 'more' water, it is water stolen from areas down-wind.
But in many areas this makes sense - if down wind 100 miles does not have a drought, it makes sense to drop the moisture in the drought area. Or if down wind = the sea, well, obvious answer.
But the real problem is the pollution in drought prone areas. A little bit of iodide, salt, etc. is not a big deal. But people have real concerns about the long term effects of constant use of the chemicals.
Burn this mf down! (Score:2)
Illegal theft of water? (Score:2)
Ok. But if you seed a cloud in Northwest Utah to fill Salt Lake that would have otherwise fallen into the Colorado River basic, then Utah is stealing water that has been designated federally for other states, like California.
This will never operate at scale. The only reason it hasn't been shut down by lawsuits yet is that no one believes it works at scale.
Make it rain (Score:1)
Fat Joe could be their spokesman.
That's not the problem (Score:2)
You can seed all day and the rain will dry up because the atmospheric sub levels are so dry the rain gets evaporated before it hits the ground. Dry sublevels conditions are common with droughts. You also won't see it on the radar because radars are thousands of feet higher than the process.