ABU DHABI: As a twin-turboprop aircraft takes off under the burning up desert sun along with dozens of salt storage containers attached to its wings, United Arab Emirates meteorological official Abullah al-Hammadi scans weather maps on computers screens for cloud formations.
At 9, 500 feet above ocean level, the plane produces salt flares to the most promising white-colored clouds, hoping to activate rainfall.
“Cloud seeding requires the presence of rainy clouds, and this is a problem as it is not always the case”, said Hamadi, mind of rain enhancement operations in the UAE’s National Centre designed for Meteorology.
The particular UAE, located in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth, continues to be leading the effort in order to seed clouds and increase precipitation, which usually remains at less than 100 millimetres (3. 9 inches) per year on average.
The consequences of climate change, coupled with a growing population and economy diversifying in to tourism and other areas have pushed up demand for drinking water in the UAE, that has relied on costly desalination plants that make use of seawater.
Officials say these people believe cloud seeding can help. Scientists in Abu Dhabi combine shooting hygroscopic, or even water-attracting, salt flares with releasing sodium nanoparticles, a newer technologies, into the clouds to stimulate and speed up the condensation procedure and hopefully produce droplets big enough in order to then fall as rain.