What Is Cloud Seeding

Imagine a draught hit village, with the cracked earth below and the blazing sun overhead. Water is not scarce, it is nonexistent. And far above you can see the rain clouds floating away to shower their drops on some other lucky village or town. You ask that with such rapid strides in technology, is there nothing that can bring the rain back to the parched earth. Well, there is a solution and it can provide relief to a certain extent. That is cloud seeding, a technique that is a buzzword among those seeking rain. Just like a farmer sowing seeds in the field, which later grow to crops, in cloud seeding the clouds are filled with ‘seeds’ to later fall as rain. The seeds in this case are nothing but the silver iodide ice crystals. To make rain, the clouds are showered with these ice crystals through airplanes or flares. The moisture in the clouds condenses around the ice crystals and become too heavy to stay afloat. So, these droplets fall as rain. Read below for some more information on cloud seeding.

 

There are three methods of cloud seeding: 

Static Cloud Seeding
In this technique a chemical, silver iodide is sprayed into the clouds. The moisture, which is present in the cloud, then condenses around the crystals. This makes the clouds more effective in dispensing the rain. 

Dynamic Cloud Seeding
In this technique, the vertical air currents are given a boost and so more water passes through the clouds. This brings in more rain. This method is quite complex and risky as there are 11 different stages involved and any glitch in any one of the stage can ruin the entire endeavor. In dynamic cloud seeding, more than hundred times of silver iodide crystals are used than in the static method. 

Hygroscopic Cloud Seeding
In this technique, explosives and flares are used to disperse salts through the lower portions of the clouds. The salts attract the water and grow in size, which then drop down as rain. However, this technique still needs to be researched more.