Delhi to conduct cloud seeding trials in September to combat air pollution: Environment Minister
The trials, earlier planned for early July, were postponed after inputs from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), IIT-Kanpur, and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, indicated that weather conditions in July were not conducive for effective seeding.
The revised window was chosen to coincide with the retreating monsoon, which offers more suitable cloud conditions.
The Delhi government has allocated ₹3.21 crore for this pilot project, which is being led by the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT-Kanpur.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has granted operational clearance for the trials. The aircraft has been equipped with cloud seeding instrumentation, and its crew holds all the required licenses and certifications.
Mr. Sirsa clarified that the aircraft will avoid prohibited areas and no aerial photography will be conducted during the operation in strict adherence to aviation safety norms.
"We have taken all the necessary permissions, and the aircraft is fully ready. The cloud seeding will now take place in the first and second week of September," the Minister said, adding that "the instrumentation work on the aircraft has been completed by IIT-Kanpur, and we are fully prepared."
The trials, which will be conducted using a Cessna 206-H aircraft (VT-IIT), will consist of five sorties over pollution-prone regions in north Delhi, including Rohini, Bawana, Alipur, and Burari, as well as parts of adjoining Uttar Pradesh, such as Loni and Baghpat.
During the sorties, the aircraft will fly below the cloud base and release hygroscopic particles — such as sodium chloride and other aerosols — into the clouds to stimulate precipitation. This weather modification technique is aimed at inducing artificial rain that could help wash out airborne pollutants.
'This is a scientific intervention to combat air pollution. If successful, it will open a new avenue for Delhi to deal with hazardous air quality, especially during the post-monsoon period,' Mr. Sirsa said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
13 hours ago
- The Hindu
IIT-M hosts session on ‘Policy Directions & Research for the Future'
The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) hosted a brainstorming session on 'Policy Directions & Research for the Future' bringing together faculty members from various universities and colleges alongside senior industry leaders to chart India's policy roadmap across critical sectors. The initiative, was organised jointly by Thenmozhi, Department of Management Studies IIT Madras and Mythili Parthasarathy, Tamil Nadu Chapter Head, Swadeshi Shodh Sansthan. The session identified critical challenges in India's education ecosystem, particularly the disconnect between academia and industry that has resulted in a shortage of employable engineers in emerging fields like automation and Industry 5.0. Participants highlighted that only 8% of current research benefits society, emphasizing the urgent need for relevant, practical education initiatives.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- New Indian Express
ISRO shares new findings on black hole
BENGALURU: A team of scientists and researchers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday listed out their unique findings while studying the Black Hole as part of their noted that the X-ray brightness from the fascinating and mysterious black hole, GRS 1915+105, fluctuates dramatically over time. It exhibits a unique pattern of alternating low-brightness ('dips') and high-brightness ('non-dips') phases, each lasting a few hundred seconds. During the high-brightness phase, the team discovered that the rapid flickers in X-rays were repeating about 70 times per second, known as Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs). Interestingly, such 'fast' flickers vanish during the low-brightness phase, noted the researchers Anju Nandi from ISRO, Santabrata Das from IIT- Guwahati, Sreehari H from Hafiza University and Seshadri Majumder from IIT Guwahati. India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory, AstroSat, has been continuously monitoring the black hole GRS 1915+105 since its launch in September 2015 and is working to provide insights into the source's behaviour. The research team stated that they found that these rapid QPOs are intimately connected to a super-heated cloud of energetic plasma surrounding the black hole, known as the corona. During the bright, high-energy phases when QPOs are strongest, the corona becomes more compact and significantly hotter with higher luminosity. Conversely, in the dimmer dip phases, the corona expands and cools, causing the flickers to vanish. This pattern suggests that the compact oscillating corona seems to be the origin of these fast QPO signals. This research work titled- Evidence of oscillating 'compact' Comptonised corona in GRS 1915+105: insights into HFQPOs with AstroSat- was also published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, on July 4, 2025. ISRO shared the details on July 25. The research team noted that these findings will help scientists understand what happens in the vicinity of a black hole, where gravity is incredibly strong and conditions are extreme.
India.com
2 days ago
- India.com
This country isn't dropping missiles, bombs, or explosives by drones but releasing mosquitoes due to..., reason will amaze you, place is...
Due to the ongoing conflicts around the world, authorities often see the need to utilize drones for defense purposes. However, there is one country that uses drones not to drop bombs or missiles, but rather to do something very different. Well, in the lush jungles of Hawaii, a rare sight emerged in June, something few could have imagined before. How can mosquitoes help protect the environment? Drones dropped tiny biodegradable pods, each containing approximately 1,000 mosquitoes. They were not just any mosquitoes. They were genetically engineered male mosquitoes in the lab. Why is this country using drones to release mosquitoes instead of weapons? These lab-reared male mosquitoes have a certain bacterium that hinders the capability for the eggs to hatch when the females reproduce. The purpose of this new technology? To save Hawaii's endangered native birds threatened by mosquito-borne diseases. These birds are crucial pollinators and seed disperse agents. According to a CNN report, they are now in great peril. Once, Hawaii had over 50 species of honeycreepers, but now only 17 are left, with most being endangered. A tiny bird named the 'akikiki' became almost extinct in the wild last year. As per the report, less than 100 birds of 'yellow-green 'akeke'e are estimated to remain. What threat are scientists trying to fight with these mosquitoes? According to Dr. Chris Farmer, the director of the Hawaii program for the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), development and deforestation certainly have effects on the environment, but the 'existential threat' to Hawaii's birds is avian malaria, which is carried by mosquitoes. Hawaii was originally mosquito-free, and they were not found in the islands until 1826, when the whaling vessels came to the islands. The whaleships had not been aware that mosquitoes were in the water, so with the introduction of mosquitoes, then, the environment was altered. Mosquitos managed to proliferate widely. Later, it became a serious threat to the birds. Moreover, the birds lacked the evolved defenses against the diseases that mosquitoes present. In the past, the birds would escape mosquitoes by moving to higher elevations on the mountains, where the colder temperatures prevent the mosquitoes from surviving, but now the temperatures in the higher elevations are rising as a result of climate change or global warming, which allowed the mosquitoes to move to higher elevations as well. In an effort to save the birds, researchers worked on a method called IIT, or Incompatible Insect Technique. IIT involves injecting male mosquitoes with a bacterium named Wolbachia. Once a lab-bred male mates with a wild female, her eggs will not hatch. Because females can't lay eggs that hatch, the population will start to slowly decline. The American Bird Conservancy and an organization called 'Birds, Not Mosquitoes', began researching this method in 2016. Millions of mosquitoes were reared in a laboratory in California and then released in Maui and Kauai in Hawaii. Roughly 1 million mosquitoes are being released each week now. 'Right now, we're releasing 500,000 mosquitoes a week on Maui and 500,000 mosquitoes a week on Kauai,' Dr. Chris Farmer, the director of the Hawaii program for the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), was quoted as saying to CNN.
