The first tests of an experimental installation that heats clouds for rainfall took place in the Stavropol Territory, the RIA Novosti portal reports with reference to the North Caucasus Federal University.
“The use of special reagents to induce artificial precipitation is expensive, therefore in the Stavropol Territory and in other regions at the present time this method is not used on an ongoing basis. Alternatively, the possibility of stimulating cloud growth using ground-based powerful heat sources is being studied. The latter create a heat stream that acts directly on existing clouds, ”the university says.
The project brought together scientists from Nalchik, Moscow, Stavropol and the United Arab Emirates. Moscow colleagues created an experimental setup, Stavropol physicists calculated what the parameters of the jet should be, they specified at the university.
“For this method to work, the jet must rise to the lower boundary of the convective cloud, that is, to a height of about 3-4 kilometers from the ground. According to our calculations, for this the temperature of the jet should exceed the ambient temperature by 10-20 degrees. More is possible, but the air in the stream will then be drier, and for this method it is desirable that it remains moist. There is one more important condition. For the jet to reach the lower edge of the cloud, you need to set it to a speed of 25 to 100 meters per second. Otherwise, it will dissipate in the air. Such a speed can be ensured by turbojet engines, as on airplanes, ”noted Robert Zakinyan, professor of the Department of General and Theoretical Physics of the NCFU, an expert in the field of physics of clouds and atmosphere.
It is emphasized that the new method of inducing artificial precipitation will be less costly. "Scientists have already carried out the first tests of the experimental setup at the test site in Budennovsk, work on the project continues," the university noted.