04-05-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China's weather modification test: cup of cloud seed makes 30 swimming pools of rain
Chinese government scientists have released the results of a weather modification experiment in the dry western region of Xinjiang.
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A fleet of
cloud seeding drones increased
rainfall by over 4 per cent across more than 8,000 sq km (3,089 sq miles) in a day, according to the project team led by Li Bin, senior engineer with the China Meteorological Administration.
The operation generated more than 70,000 cubic metres (18.5 million gallons) of additional
precipitation – enough to fill 30 Olympic-sized 2 metre-deep (6.5 feet) swimming pools – using 1kg (2.2 Ibs) of silver iodide, a common cloud-seeding compound.
Such an amount of silver iodide powder, six times the density of water, can barely fill a travel mug.
The test, led by the CMA's key laboratory of cloud-precipitation physics and weather modification (CPML) in Beijing, was detailed in a peer-reviewed paper published in Chinese-language journal Desert and Oasis Meteorology on April 10.
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