Lasers Could Be Used to Start or Stop Rainfall
September 1st, 2011Via: Guardian:
Ever since ancient farmers called on the gods to send rain to save their harvests, humans have longed to have the weather at their command.
That dream has now received a boost after researchers used a powerful laser to produce water droplets in the air, a step that could ultimately help trigger rainfall.
While nothing can produce a downpour from dry air, the technique, called laser-assisted water condensation, might allow some control over where and when rain falls if the atmosphere is sufficiently humid.
Researchers demonstrated the technique in field tests after hauling a mobile laser laboratory the size of a small garage to the banks of the Rhône near lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Records from 133 hours of firings revealed that intense pulses of laser light created nitric acid particles in the air that behaved like atmospheric glue, binding water molecules together into droplets and preventing them from re-evaporating.
Within seconds, these grew into stable drops a few thousandths of a millimetre in diameter: too small to fall as rain, but large enough to encourage the scientists to press on with the work.
“We have not yet generated raindrops – they are too small and too light to fall as rain. To get rain, we will need particles a hundred times the size, so they are heavy enough to fall,” said Jérôme Kasparian, a physicist at the University of Geneva. A report on the tests appears in the journal Nature Communications.
With improvements, shooting lasers into the sky could either help trigger or prevent showers. One possibility might be to create water droplets in air masses drifting towards mountains. The air would cool as it rose over these, causing the water droplets to grow and eventually fall.
An alternative might be to stave off an immediate downpour by creating so many tiny droplets in the air that none grew large enough to fall. “Maybe one day this could be a way to attenuate the monsoon or reduce flooding in certain areas,” Kasparian said.
Efforts to bring the weather under control have become a matter of national pride in China, where the Beijing meterological bureau has an office devoted to weather modification. In 2009, the department claimed success after 18 jets and 432 explosive rockets laden with chemicals were sent into the skies to “seed” clouds. The chemicals, usually dry ice or silver iodide, provide a surface for water vapour to condense on, and supposedly trigger downpours from pregnant skies.
I saw what tags you posted this under, and thought maybe you should have a “what could possibly go wrong?” tag. (WCPGW?)
On reflection, I realized that that’s what Cryptogon’s all about, directly and indirectly: it’s almost all going wrong.
Thank you, again, for chronicling it.
Yeah, WCPGW? I’ve definitely considered it, but like you say, it applies to just about everything on here. I’m constantly struggling with the urge to use the phrase. My main justification for using it on the recent asteroid post was because it actually appeared in the article.
Anyway, my guess is that this laser/weather control thing is decades old technology, but I’m too numb to write it all out with suitable documentation at the moment. As such, I’m just leaving this out there as a dot that people can connect with other dots, or not, as they see fit.
I appreciate you posting this article Kevin, but I am also too numb, dumb, and tired at the moment with all else too read to send anyone who cares to know any links on the topic.
Weather modification has been around for A LONG TIME, as well as the fools who think they can use it to their advantage.
Why screw Vermont? I imagine that these nimrods think that they can screw with the last bastion of liberals in the nation.
Ever been there?
Goddess bless Vermont.It will take more than weather modification in the form of a hurricane to turn people there into sheeple.
Be afraid? Find somewhere else to turn your weather machine onto for that effect.
great stuff, Kevin.
thanks for all your efforts.
looks like i’m moving up to the mountains earlier than i thought. lol.
cheers