Talk:Cloud seeding

Alternative idea?

How about the idea, shooting pellets of frozen ice or dry ice with a core, containing the condensation nuclei, by a paintball ("gotcha") gun towards the base of the thunderstorm cloud? Having a pressure of 200 bar, one could reach a velocity of 200m/s and a final altitude of 3000 ft (rough estimate). The core would melt during flight, releasing the condensation nuclei at the climax. One could perhaps freeze the content under a higher pressure into the hull, so that the release would be more abrupt, spreading the condenstaion nuclei. With paintball, a repetition rate of 30..50 pellets a minute would be possible.

Health Effects

I first remember hearing about cloud seeding as a child in the late 50's. Since then the subject seems to have disappeared. I would like to know if cloud seeding is still done? I'm also curious about whether there has been any studies regarding the possibility (or lack of it) of long term health problems resulting from cloud seeding. Considering the increase in asthma and other chronic conditions plaguing our Baby boom generation and our children it seems that we should be questioning processes that were done in our lifetime such as cloudseeding, christmas tree fire retardence, mass vaccinations, etc. that may have seemed like a good thing to do at the time but may have resulted in unknown long term health affects.

I could've sworn I read that it was a widespread practice in China, so much so that they were fighting over who owned the best clouds. They use artillery, rockets, and planes to deliver the chemicals. This ring a bell for anyone?-LtNOWIS 23:08, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Does anyone have any information on the health effects of this? That was the first thing I thought of when I read this: (Xinhua News). Andy 11:29, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

The Russians apparently used Lead Iodide, rather than silver Iodide. The health implications though are minimalistic when it is considered that over a square kilometre, the silver iodide used in aerial cloud seeding would be approx. a tablespoon.

cloud seeding

I'm a young kid but i still know alittle about cloud seeding it has been proven many cases that it is safe and ok the only thing that really sticks in my brain is in march 22, 1998 when cloud seeding helped a fire that got out ahand.I also know even some of the bad cases are because they can't measure the precipiatation levels in the cloud even with all our new computers and stuff.

                        Thanks a fellow 8th grader in Grundy center,Iowa

"Russian military pilots seeded clouds over Belarus after the Chernobyl disaster to remove radioactive particles from clouds heading toward Moscow.[15]"

Should this not be labelled as a conspiracy theory as much as the, improbable, Woodstock one. It is taken from a single Telegraph article, not the most impartial source, which nonetheless makes it clear it has been denied by the government. Perhaps more importantly the wind was due north, leading to the radioactivity being detected inSweden before the USSR went public, while Noscow is directly to the east of Belarus. Neil Craig —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.17.46.34 (talk) 16:34, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Operation Cumulus

No mention of Operation Cumulus of 1952 on the article. I think that's something that might be worth talking about as it was hidden by the UK government for years until a pilot spoke out and the papers were released.

Vietnam

Didn't we use cloud seeding during the Vietnam war to keep NVA supply lines muddy? I think I heard this somewhere, but can't verify it.

141.213.251.164 18:37, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

I believe you're right, and I seem to remember reading about it on a wikipedia article, but now I can't find it. It's mentioned briefly under the Ho Chi-Minh Trail article, but that's all. I also believe that is what prompted the UN to ban the use of weather control as a type of weapon. -wedgiey1 67.171.68.242 04:12, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, we used it to wash out the Ho Chi Minh trail. It can be verified in the book "Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America" by Ted Steinberg.

I thoroughly doubt these claims, given that there still is little proof that cloud seeding works 199.111.85.50 19:40, 25 April 2007 (UTC) 17:49, 2 July 2007 (GMT)

There's also a three part programme by the BBC called 'The Science of Superstorms' that's worth checking out and mentions (in the first programme I believe) the fact that the US used the technique in the Vietnam war.

The wikipedia aritcle about this topic is "Operation Popeye". 71.231.190.148 (talk) 22:24, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Cleanup

See WP:CONTEXT. This article was targetted by a user [1] for overlinking. It has been tagged for cleanup and will be cleaned up as time permits. Anyone willing to go ahead and remove the excessive linking before I get back to it will be greatly permitted as many articles were overlinked and only now just discovered. --Crossmr 07:22, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Regarding clean-up how come noone seems to mention the fact that cloud seeding is suspected to have been used the soviet government as a way of removing the toxic waste that went into the clouds above Chernobyl and as such were seeded near Gomel to prevent said waste from reaching Moscow and St Petersburg.

Meteorology tagging, after nearly two years

This should help in your efforts to clean up the page. There is a bit of a movement within meteorology and hurricane projects to upgrade their pages. Now that they know of its existence, it should be whipped into shape. Thegreatdr 21:26, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Cloud seeding practice and health effects

Cloud seeding is indeed done today, by about 24 countries and eleven Western states - see http://www.naiwmc.org for a map of the Western U.S. and Canada states/provinces.

The health effects from silver deposited from silver iodide seeding are indeed minimal, and no studies have shown any silver contents in the environment above background levels. You will have much more exposure to silver from tooth fillings than from cloud seeding! Much research on the environmental and health effects of seeding were done over 20 years ago, because funding for cloud seeding research in general has declined precipitously since that time.

Another big myth about cloud seeding is that it causes precipitation decreases downwind of the area that is seeded. This is called the "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul" effect. It is discussed for winter seeding by an FAQ at http://www.wet-intl.com/faq.html . The bottom line is that there has been no evidence for decreases downwind of seeding target areas, but some evidence for increases as much as 100 miles downwind.

There is still controversy about whether cloud seeding really works, in large part because of the lack of scientific research. The National Academies of Science National Research Council studied the field in 2003 and concluded that there is a great need for a national research program to clear up remaining questions. Nevertheless, three professional societies (American Meteorological Society (AMS), Weather Modification Association, and World Meteorological Organization) agree that the best evidence for effectiveness is with winter cloud seeding to augment snowfall over mountains. In fact, the AMS even states that there is good evidence to support 10% increases in snow water seasonally. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Esteban9 (talk • contribs) 22:45, 4 December 2006 (UTC).

If this needs to be done it should be done in the evening. 130.232.109.140 (talk) 05:52, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Regulation

Is this thing regulated internationally or locally in any country? Obviously neighboring regions/countries might agree with getting more/less rain as a result. --Voidvector 06:39, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Should "cloud seeding" be disambiguated?

According to cloud seeding, cloud seeding is a human activity, whereas global warming#Solar variation presents "cloud seeding via galactic cosmic rays" as a natural phenomenon. If both articles are correct about these expressions, should "cloud seeding" be disambiguated? -- Wavelength (talk) 20:17, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Clouds can be seeded both naturally and otherwise. We should clarify its definition in the lead, and add a reference to it. Thegreatdr (talk) 01:37, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Fatalities

Just wondering if this cloud seeding related death in China[2] deserves a mention. SmokeySteve (talk) 20:07, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Distribution of silver iodide via kite lines

I rather like the idea about using a paintgun or airgun to shoot pellets into the sky. However, it makes more sense to climb a nearby hill to increase your range, so you can fire at the right cloud. (I happen to live at the 1,100 foot level while most of Portland, Oregon, is about 62 feet above sea level.)

But if the winds are blowing right, you should be able to increase the range with a catapult or even a kite (by attaching a battery-powered motor that climbs the line on its own). In the last instance, using a kite, 200 feet strikes me as the limit in range that an amateur kite flyer could achieve before the line breaks under the weight of the load on the line, and the stress caused by the wind. Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 02:10, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Can it refresh our fresh water supply?

Is it true that we can increase our fresh water supply if we did cloud seeding around our lakes, rivers, and streams to increase their rainfall amount? GVnayR (talk) 02:02, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so. We can only seed the clouds that are there already. We can make it rain here instead of there, or now instead of later, but we can't create extra water vapour. The only possibility for extra water would be if, for example, we seeded a cloud that was going pass over an island, and make it rain on the island instead of at sea. I wonder if this has been done for real? Might be good for the article. Totnesmartin (talk) 10:20, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Interestingly, as mentioned in the article, South East Queensland Australia has been conducting a cloud seeding trial for the past four years, with the hopes of "easing" the drought situation ... do you think it might've worked? :| --PoizonMyst (talk) 13:53, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

assault jet picture

Does anybody think it looks funny or just me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.84.165.12 (talk) 14:08, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes having an A-10 Thunderbolt as the cloud seeding aircraft is somewhat odd. Not only would I suspect some sort of civilian aircraft, such as a water bomber. But also something with a much larger capacity.

Salt Usage

So... is it used or isn't it?

There is NEVER salt included.

and later in the same paragraph...

The use of hygroscopic materials, such as salt, is increasing in popularity[citation needed] because of some promising research results[citation needed].

There isn't a citation for either part, I would suggest removing them both.

SeanJA (talk) 13:19, 8 August 2011 (UTC)