Latest news with #LucaDelleMonache
Express Tribune
25-02-2025
- Climate
- Express Tribune
AI-driven cloud seeding offers hope for ending drought in UAE
Listen to article In the halls of a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, experts gathered to address an age-old challenge: making it rain in the UAE, one of the world's largest deserts. Despite decades of research and millions of dollars spent, rainfall remains elusive in this arid region, home to a growing expatriate population thriving amid the harsh climate and blistering summer heat. However, at the recent International Rain Enhancement Forum, held last month, a glimmer of hope emerged. Officials are now exploring artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance cloud seeding techniques, potentially increasing rainfall in the region's dry skies. Luca Delle Monache, deputy director of the Centre for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California San Diego, confirmed that AI-driven cloud seeding is in its final stages. AI will feed satellite, radar, and weather data into an algorithm that predicts where seedable clouds will form over the next six hours, improving the accuracy of cloud seeding missions, which occur regularly in the UAE. Although cloud seeding has been used for decades, AI could bring significant improvements. The technology works by using planes to fire chemicals, like salt, into clouds, encouraging the formation of larger droplets that can fall as rain. While cloud seeding can boost rainfall by 10-15%, it requires precise timing and correct cloud conditions. Delle Monache stressed that AI could help pinpoint the right location and time to optimize the chances of success. The UAE, with an average of only 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) of rainfall per year, relies heavily on desalinated water for its nearly 10 million residents. Yet, agriculture and industry also require groundwater replenished by rain. Despite the government's efforts to enhance rainfall, downpours remain so rare that children often cheer and rush to windows when they occur. The country's pursuit of rain is not new. Ordering prayers for rain is a common tradition among Gulf ruling families. Last year, the UAE witnessed a rare, heavy rainfall event, when record downpours flooded roads and shut down Dubai's international airport for days. The UAE's Rain Enhancement Programme has already invested $22.5 million in grants to support innovation in cloud seeding and other rain-related technologies. Experts gathered at the forum emphasized that AI's potential to improve weather prediction is still in its early stages. Some caution remains, as precise data about cloud composition is often scarce due to expensive monitoring equipment. 'AI is an exciting frontier, but it is not a silver bullet,' said Marouane Temimi, associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. "There is still a lot of work to be done, particularly when it comes to data accuracy." Loic Fauchon, president of the World Water Council, urged a balanced approach, emphasizing that human intelligence still plays a crucial role in tackling the challenges of water scarcity.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Stuck in eternal drought, UAE turns to AI to make it rain
In the marbled halls of a luxury hotel, leading experts are discussing a new approach to an age-old problem: how to make it rain in the UAE, the wealthy Gulf state that lies in one of the world's biggest deserts. Decades of work and millions of dollars have been ploughed into easing endless drought in the oil-rich UAE, whose mainly expatriate population is soaring undeterred by a dry, hostile climate and hairdryer summer heat. Despite the United Arab Emirates' best efforts, rainfall remains rare. But at last month's International Rain Enhancement Forum in Abu Dhabi officials held out a new hope: harnessing artificial intelligence to wring more moisture out of often cloudless skies. Among the initiatives is an AI system to improve cloud seeding, the practice of using planes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to increase rain. "It's pretty much finished," said Luca Delle Monache, deputy director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "We're doing the final touches." However, Delle Monache conceded that AI was not a "silver bullet" for the UAE, which like other countries has pursued cloud seeding for decades. Cloud seeding works by increasing the size of droplets, which then fall as rain. It's estimated to increase rainfall by 10-15 percent, Delle Monache said. But it only works with certain types of puffy, cumulus clouds, and can even suppress rainfall if not done properly. "You've got to do it in the right place at the right time. That's why we use artificial intelligence," he added. - Prayers, applause - The three-year project, funded with $1.5 million from the UAE's rain enhancement program, feeds satellite, radar and weather data into an algorithm that predicts where seedable clouds will form in the next six hours. It promises to advance the current method where cloud-seeding flights are directed by experts studying satellite images. Hundreds of such flights occur annually in the UAE. With only about 100 millimetres (3.9 inches) of annual rainfall, the UAE's nearly 10 million people mainly rely on desalinated water, piped from plants that produce about 14 percent of the world's total, according to official figures. The population is 90 percent foreign and has increased nearly 30-fold since the UAE's founding in 1971. People are concentrated in the big cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, coast-hugging refuges from the vast Arabian Desert hinterland. However, the country still needs groundwater, replenished by rain and encouraged by a series of dams, for agriculture and industry. Although UAE officials say rain has increased, downpours remain so unusual that school children are known to burst into applause and rush to classroom windows for a better view. Rain, even the artificial variety, is exotic enough to be a leisure attraction: at Dubai's Raining Street, visitors pay 300 dirhams ($81) to walk in fake drizzle. Ordering prayers for rain is a long-standing practice by the Gulf's ruling families. The memorable exception was last April, when the heaviest rains on record shuttered Dubai's major international air hub and flooded roads, paralysing the city for days. - 'Very niche area' - Searching for solutions, the UAE in 2017 started holding the rainfall forum, which has now seen seven editions. Its Rain Enhancement Program has handed out $22.5 million in grants over a decade. "When it comes to cloud-seeding this program here is the best in the world," Delle Monache said at the forum, held near the presidential palace and next to the headquarters of ADNOC, the state oil firm. "It's a very niche area in atmospheric science. There are few experts in the world and they're pretty much all here now." His team's algorithm was not the only use of AI in discussion. Marouane Temimi, associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, outlined a US-developed system that uses machine learning to track the path and impact of storms in real time. However Temimi, like Delle Monache, was also cautious about AI solutions, warning there were clear limits. A lack of detailed data about cloud composition -- a common problem, as monitoring equipment is expensive -- hampers accurate predictions even with AI, Temimi said. "I would say we still have some work to do just because we have data, but not enough data to train models correctly," he told AFP. Enthusiasm for AI was also tempered by Loic Fauchon, president of the World Water Council of government, commercial, UN and other groups. "Be careful. Try to find the right balance between artificial intelligence and human intelligence," he told the conference. "Do not go too fast to artificial intelligence. Humankind is probably the best (option)." th/it/fox
