Rainmaking technology will be far better deployed and there will be far more of it, a top meteorologist promised.
The country plans to improve artificial precipitation by 3 to 5 percentage points in the following five years, Zheng Guoguang, administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, said.
Rainmaking technological innovation in China lags behind the leading countries in the field by amongst 15 and 45 %, dependent on the region, he explained. The arsenal targeting the weather includes more than 7,000 rocket launchers, at least 50 planes and virtually 7,000 guns.
Management capability will also be enhanced, Zheng stated for the duration of the National Weather Modification Conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
“Numerous of the nation’s all-natural and agricultural disasters, especially those involving grain and tobacco, are induced by drought,” he mentioned.
“With so a lot of places in China, particularly rural regions, vulnerable to storms, blizzards, hail and other natural disasters, the demand has been quickly growing to use science and technological innovation to reduce the risks.”
Climate modification involves seeding clouds with grains of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) or tiny particles of silver iodide to stimulate rainfall. Its use has been expanding nationally in current years to tackle drought, hailstones, forest fires and floods.
Some 560,000 manipulations of the weather have been conducted since 2002 using rockets and projectiles carrying dry ice or silver iodide according to figures from the China Meteorological Administration.
That helped release 489.7 billion tons of rain, about twelve times the water storage of the Three Gorges Project and saved about 66 billion yuan ($10.4 billion) in financial losses.
Weather manipulation started out in 1958, Wang Guanghe, deputy director of the artificial climate intervention center underneath the China Meteorological Administration, said.
Lack of investment in scientific and technological research has also slowed down development, Wang explained.
The government has already launched a special 160 million yuan fund to subsidize places susceptible to all-natural disasters, such as drought and haze.
The fund will go to projects to bring about a lot more rain, snow and avert hail showers.
Aircraft, guns and rockets will be used to avert unpredictable climate from disrupting key events.
It is the first time that the government subsidized regional efforts to manipulate the climate.
Enhancing information movement amongst regions will also improve manipulation, Wang explained.
A lack of cloud-seeding equipment in some cities and an absence of a system to make certain details is relayed appropriately hampers efforts to focus on more than one specific region at a time, Wang stated.
Aside from, skilled education and safety supervision also have an influence, he said.
There is concern over potential pollution hazards connected to the intervention projects.
Nevertheless, Wang dismissed these worries.
“Quite number of doses of dry ice or silver iodide are employed,” he mentioned.
“The silver is heavy metal and the amount that is employed is so tiny that it can be ignored.
Sources and more information:
• China to increase rainmaking efforts
BEIJING, May 23 (UPI) — A leading Chinese meteorologist says the country will employ more rainmaking technology and make better use of it in the next five years. Zheng Guoguang, administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, said China’s use of artificial precipitation technologies lags behind the leading countries in the field by 15…
• China turns on the sprinklers with ambitious rain-making plans
