In addressing this concern, Dubai is heavily relying on cutting-edge technology, employing tactics such as manipulating weather conditions to enhance rainfall through cloud seeding.
From Unbelievable Facts:
The population of Dubai has increased from less than a million in 2002 to more than 3.5 million in 2022. With the exponential increase in the city’s population, providing sufficient resources to all its inhabitants is a big challenge. While the city has undergone a spectacular transformation in the past few decades, it still contends with the typical desert weather conditions, i.e., hot and arid. However, technological advancements have allowed Dubai to control the very weather! With the power of cloud seeding, they can now generate rainstorms at will to augment the water sources. Let’s understand how countries like the UAE are learning to manipulate the weather by first understanding the concept of cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding is the practice of adding chemical compounds to clouds to generate rain. Silver iodide particles dispersed via planes or drones act as condensation nuclei or ice nuclei and induce rain. Vincent J. Schaefer, American chemist and meteorologist, conducted the very first cloud-seeding experiment in 1946.
The chemical particles are spread into supercooled clouds that are below the freezing point of water. These chemical particles function as nuclei, a surface around which water droplets can form. As more water droplets condense around this surface, they begin to form ice crystals. These minute crystals begin to grow quickly as the surrounding water vapor latches onto the crystals, producing snowflakes. After achieving a certain weight, the snowflakes descend as rain from the clouds that would otherwise not produce any rain.
Cloud seeding isn't exactly cutting-edge technology; it's been around since the 1940s and saw extensive use during the 1990s. It's intriguing to witness how a highly developed city like Dubai is harnessing this older tech to address its water challenges.
