The idea[]
Weather modification is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, which increases rain or snow, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water supply. Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or hurricanes, from occurring; or of provoking damaging weather against the enemy, as a tactic of military or economic warfare like Operation Popeye, where clouds were seeded to prolong the monsoon in Vietnam. Weather modification in warfare has been banned by the United Nations under the Environmental Modification Convention due to it's arbitrary and potential catastrophic effects on the region under attack.
History[]
A popular belief in Northern Europe was that shooting prevents hail, thus caused many agricultural towns to fire cannons without ammunition. Veterans of the Seven Years' War, Napoleonic wars, and the American Civil War reported that rain fell after every large battle. After their stories were collected in War and Weather, the United States Department of War in the late 19th century purchased $9,000 of gunpowder and explosives to detonate them in Texas, in hopes of condensing water vapor into rain. The results of the test, supervised by Robert Dyrenforth, were inconclusive. Wilhelm Reich performed cloud-busting experiments in the 1950s, the results of which are controversial and were not widely accepted by mainstream science.
In mountainous areas of the United States such as the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, cloud seeding has been employed since the 1950s to improve local rainfall. Thailand and the USSR would also take up the idea.
Usage[]
The United States, China, India, the UAE, Thailand, the USSR, Jordan and Russia have all used it for civil weather manipulation to improve local rainfall between 1947 and 2020.
Also see[]
- Project Cirrus
- High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)
- Operation Popeye
- Project Stormfury
- Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation
- Project Cumulus
- Alberta Hail Project
- Weather Modification Operations and Research Board
- HIPAS Observatory
- Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility
- Poker Flat Research Range
- EISCAT
- Beijing Weather Modification Office
Sources[]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_modification
- https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v19n03_1961-02/page/n36/mode/1up?view=theater
- https://web.archive.org/web/20090501185630/http://energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-500-2007-008/CEC-500-2007-008.PDF
- http://energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-500-2007-008/CEC-500-2007-008.PDF
- https://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/king/rainmaking.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110107192913/http://www.arabianbusiness.com/abu-dhabi-backed-scientists-create-fake-rainstorms-in-11m-project-371038.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Modification_Convention
- https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v19n03_1961-02/page/n36/mode/1up?view=theater
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rainmaking_Project
- https://web.archive.org/web/20161105045733/http://thainews.prd.go.th/website_en/news/news_detail/WNEVN5903040010016
- https://thainews.prd.go.th/website_en/news/news_detail/WNEVN5903040010016/
- https://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/jordan-attempt-artificial-rainmaking-spring
- https://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/king/rainmaking.html
- https://vulcanpost.com/590668/king-bhumibol-adulyadej-artificial-rain/
- https://www.royalrain.go.th/royalrain/Editor_Page.aspx?MenuId=105
- https://www.bb.go.th/en/topic-detail.php?id=8562&mid=456&catID=0
- https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/cloud-seeding-weather-control-manipulate-effects-chemicals-climate-change-a8160146.html
- https://www.bb.go.th/en/topic-detail.php?id=8562&mid=456&catID=0
- https://web.archive.org/web/20190720210220/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/cloud-seeding-weather-control-manipulate-effects-chemicals-climate-change-a8160146.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20090501185630/http://energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-500-2007-008/CEC-500-2007-008.PDF
- https://www.energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-500-2007-008/CEC-500-2007-008.PDF
- https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/technology/abu-dhabi-backed-scientists-create-fake-rainstorms-in-11m-project-371038
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110107192913/http://www.arabianbusiness.com/abu-dhabi-backed-scientists-create-fake-rainstorms-in-11m-project-371038.html
- https://www.cbd.int/cop10/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110107192913/http://www.arabianbusiness.com/abu-dhabi-backed-scientists-create-fake-rainstorms-in-11m-project-371038.html
- https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v2/rule76
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/weather-modification-in-the-uk
- https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=XXVI-1&chapter=26&clang=_en