2023-07-10 01:06:47
Flares loaded with cloud seeding material are fired from the wings of an aircraft as it flies through a cloud. JIM BRANDEBURG/MINDEN PICTURES/NEWSCOM. Christian Garavaglia Meteored Argentina 09/07/2023 21:06 5 min
A Chilean company submitted a proposal to the Uruguayan Air Force to combat the water emergency suffered by Montevideo, resorting to the controversial cloud seeding method.
The proposal was submitted a month ago, but the company has yet to receive any response from the Uruguayan government. However, sources from Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE) confirmed in these hours to the Uruguayan media The Observer what the Air Force is managing the offer.
They ensure that the proposal is currently preliminary. The intention of the Chilean company is to tour the country, learn about the geography in detail, analyze the basins, establish a relationship with the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (INCLUDE), and evaluate technical aspects of the Air Force before making a final proposal.
Cloud seeding: air or ground system
The method can be air or landalthough the company recommends that both be implemented in the case of Montevideo.
View of the drought in the Canelón Grande reservoir (REUTERS / Alejandro Obaldia)
In the air system, the introduction of silver iodide is 100% ensured burned in the cloudiness. Various silver iodide flares are used in the process, which burn and release microparticles into the clouds as you fly through them. This system has a higher cost and covers a more restricted area.
In the terrestrial system, costs are lowered. It consists of burning the silver iodide but on land, taking advantage of the heat from the combustion of the product. The smoke generated by this combustion rises under unstable weather conditions, allowing the silver iodide to reach the cloudiness level.
The controversial method of seeding clouds to make precipitation
The origins of cloud seeding date back to the 1940s.in the USA. Vincent J. Schaefer, experimenting in the General Electric laboratory, achieved cloud seeding for the first time by use a piece of dry ice that was used to create a milky-looking cloud, made up of an infinity of micro crystalsit’s ice. A short time later, his assistant, Vonnegut, verified that silver iodide was also an effective nucleating element.
Over time the laboratory tests were transferred to real life, aided by aircraft to deposit the silver iodide. Some promising results aroused the interest of the US military, although Meteorologists from the Meteorological Service questioned the success of the method.
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As our colleague from Spain, José Miguel Viñas, explained in a related note, It is to this day that the undoubted nucleation capacity of a substance such as silver iodide is not denied.but what is always at the center of the debate is the scope of the sowing method and its real effectivenessconsidering the complexity involved in the processes that take place inside the clouds.
In Argentinathe government of the province of Mendoza, through the Directorate of Agriculture and Climatic Contingencies of the Ministry of Agroindustry and Technology, is a pioneer in the use of aircraft to sow clouds with silver iodide, thus promoting the creation of many raindrops in the typical storm clouds in the warm season in the region, preventing hail from reaching a significant size and causing damage to crops.
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