‎10 Things you must know about cloud seeding :)

1. Cloud seeding is the process of spreading either dry ice, or more commonly, silver iodide aerosols, into the upper part of clouds to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain.

2. Vincent Schaefer (1906-1993) discovered the principle of cloud seeding in July 1946.

3. Formations of Clouds occur when they contain supercooled water- liquid water colder than zero degree Celsius.

4. Introduction of a substance, such as silver iodide, that has a crystalline structure similar to that of ice, induces freezing and thus leads to condensation around substrate nuclei.

5. The most common intended effects of cloud seeding include precipitation, fog dispersal (visibility improvement) and hail suppression.

6. The materials used in cloud seeding include two primary categories, tied to the type of precipitation process involved.

7. One category includes those which act as glaciogenic (ice-forming) agents, such as silver iodide, dry ice and compressed liquid propane or carbon dioxide.

8. The second category is for cloud systems where the warm (coalescence) process predominates. In those environments, hygroscopic (water attracting) materials such as salt, urea and ammonium nitrate can be utilized.

9. The largest cloud seeding system in the world is that of the China, which has increased the amount of rain over several increasingly arid regions, including its capital city, Beijing, by firing silver iodide rockets into the sky where rain is desired.

10. In India, cloud seeding operations were conducted during the years 2003 and 2004 through U.S. based Weather Modification Inc. in the state of Maharashtra.
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