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Language: en
could this little trailer help save the
drought-stricken west by bringing more
rain and snow to the region
that's what these Engineers think
they've parked the trailer up here in
the mountains of Colorado in hopes of
changing the weather and there's dozens
of them just like this in use right now
it might all sound like science fiction
but it's a weather modification
technique called cloud seeding and it
was first done successfully as early as
the 1940s
Colorado some ski towns were cloud
seeding as far back as the 70s
and it's also been used around the globe
China's cloud seeding program reportedly
had a plan to make clouds rain before
they had a chance to float over the
Beijing Olympic Stadium you can find
cloud seating from California to North
Dakota but how does cloud seeding work
to learn more I've come to Colorado to
see how seating works up close and
personal
the night before I arrived the clouds
above me were seated we are approaching
the location of our cloud seating
generator
Scott grebling is a water resources
engineer for the local Water Conservancy
District the locations chosen for these
sites have the right elevation and can
reach the perfect clouds our district
has come to the conclusion that cloud
seeding and weather modification is a
very safe and very cost effective way of
increasing local Water Supplies
so how do you
see your remote generator Garrett
Commons is president of a cloud seeding
company that operates hundreds of cloud
seeding sites and it sounds like you're
terraforming or completely changing the
climate of an area but that's not that's
not how it works since clouds are
basically water vapor the idea is to
release particles into the clouds that
will attract water making it easier for
water droplets or snowflakes to form
they get heavier and eventually fall to
Earth instead of staying in the sky this
Colorado team uses a solution with a
chemical called Silver iodide which when
burned splits into billions of particles
per gram
rice is the perfect either clouds eat
themselves with ice crystals silver
iodide is really the closest and similar
structure as eyes so that's why we're
using silver iodide here camons
activates the flame it contains a silver
iodized solution mixed with propane a
series of tanks and Regulators manage
the pressure and exact flow rate of the
silver iodide solution a typical storm
system will only drop about 10 percent
of its moisture we're hoping that the
storm system will drop 10 and a half to
11 and a half percent of its moisture
okay but does cloud seeding actually
work we would come out with research
aircraft and with ground-based Radars
and we would basically measure the
atmosphere prior to cloud seeding and
during cloud seeding The Landmark snowy
project set out to discover just that at
pretty clever approach a plane flying
back and forth dropped chemicals into
the clouds
when the team studied the resulting
precipitation they found it had snowed
in a zigzag pattern matching the path of
the seating agent's flow could it have
all just been a fluke we were in shock
or in disbelief and then of course we
say okay we saw it one day can we can be
repeated they did the same experiment
several more times as the wind blew the
seating agent the same zigzag line of
precipitation appeared which you would
never see in a natural snowfall this is
revolutionary because we have a hard
time quantifying what really comes out
from from cloud sailing so at least in
some situations cloud seeding can
increase precipitation but is up against
challenging odds concerned about
Reservoir levels over the last 43 years
snowpack has only been this low or lower
seven times
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I'm in a creek
snow is crucial to the Rockies because
as it gradually melts water runs
Downstream replenishing bodies of water
for nearby towns that's why Colorado's
water conservation board partnered with
a Water Conservancy District to share
the cost of hiring a cloud-seeding
company to seed in the area
but is cloud seeding safe
silver iodide has been used since the
19th century in photo development and
also has an antiseptic in medicine
exposure to a large amount of it could
even lead to skin and eye irritation
high levels of silver iodide in one area
could be toxic to organisms in our water
and soil for these reasons and others
State cloud seeding efforts are reported
to federal agencies we want to be
conscious we don't really want to put a
lot of silver into the atmosphere over
the years another big concern about
cloud seeding has been that it could
cause too much precipitation
such as this massive flood in the small
town in the UK which destroyed homes and
killed more than 30 people while
circumstantial some linked it to a
nearby cloud seeding program
s actually have to play by the rules as
soon as they have a certain snow depth
they stop seeding and in order to
prevent floods
today canvas's company has hundreds of
seating sites and across the globe
several other nations are testing the
technology
in fact nearly every meteorologist I
spoke with told me to get ready as they
expect cloud seeding once a big question
mark to increase in frequency
as for the potential to impact drought
it may be a long time before scientists
know for sure even if widely used it's
still difficult to quantify exactly how
much additional precipitation comes from
seeding a cloud
we all know about the greenhouse effect
but how many of us understand why it
happens our friends have reactions
uncover what's so unique about carbon
dioxide that has allowed it to transform
our entire planet check out the link in
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