The Science of Superstorms
Playing God with the Weather
Cloud Seeding
A Superstorm
Global warming is forecast to have a catastrophic effect on the weather
all over the planet and this will place extreme pressure on the world's
natural resources. To try and combat these effects, experts are
increasingly turning to weather modification techniques such as cloud
seeding. In the future, weather modification could even be used to tackle
the growing threat of superstorms.
While there are clear humanitarian reasons for wanting to manipulate
the weather, there is also a dark history around previous attempts to do
so. The British, Russian and American governments have all conducted
top-secret weather modification projects, sometimes with disastrous
consequences. For the first time, some of those actively involved have
agreed to talk.
Here, we investigate the potential benefits and the appalling
consequences of attempting to control the weather.
Dr Roelof Bruintjes of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research is
one of the world's leading authorities on weather modification. He's been
conduction research in this area for more than twenty years. Dr Bruintjes'
expertise is in demand all over the world, for one very good reason; he
can make it rain!
Deon Terblanche
A rapidly growing population coupled with global warming means that
water is set to become the world's most precious commodity. One of the
solutions to this problem can be found in clouds. Dr Deon Terblanche of
the UN Meteorological Organisation explains "An average rain cloud
contains about eight million tons of rainwater. Therefore, there's a vast
quantity of untapped fresh water in the sky and this is where
cloud-seeding comes in, to address the growing needs for water around the
world".
Most rain-making techniques used today originated back in 1946 when
scientists discovered that by dropping particles of a chemical called
silver iodide into cloud tops, they could trigger rainfall. Since then,
countries all over the world have experimented with different ways to
squeeze rain out of the clouds. China spends more on cloud-seeding than
any other country.
Roelof Bruintjes
Dr Bruintjes is in Mali, West Africa to test a new technique he's
devised with colleagues from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research.
It involves the use of pyrotechnic flares to deliver a special seeding
material into the base of clouds. The so-called hydroscopic flares contain
salts. As the flares burn, the smoke diffuses the particles and takes them
into the cloud where they participate in the rain formation. Once released
into the cloud's updraught, each one of the hydroscopic salt particles
becomes a seed around which a single water droplet can form. These
droplets collide with each other and grow, eventually becoming heavy
enough to fall out of the cloud as rain.
Weather modification, today, is an increasingly precise science which
can reap huge benefits for the many countries that suffer from severe
water shortages. Cloud-seeding seems to be making a change for the
better for many people in the world today but, it's a science that is
born out of a murky and troubled past.
In 1952, a freak storm destroyed the sleep Devonshire village of
Lynemouth. The storm led to catastrophic flooding that destroyed the
town and killed 35 people. It was the most destructive storm in British
history, but was it a natural one?
Within days of the catastrophe, there were rumours of secret
experiments which the Met. office and Ministry of Defence flatly denied.
Then a witness came forward. A glider pilot Alan Yates, now deceased,
told a BBC journalist that, just prior to the Lynemouth flood, he had
taken part in a government-sponsored cloud-seeding experiment. Yates
told the journalist that he and his colleagues had seeded clouds over
the Bedfordshire countryside and had witnessed the effects for
themselves.
Lynemouth Disaster
Recently declassified documents have confirmed that the experiment,
codenamed Operation Cumulus, took place in the first two weeks of August
1952 and coincided with the heaviest rainfall in Bedfordshire for many
years. The experiment was heralded as a resounding success, until the
rain continued to spread west into Devon.
More than 50 years after the event, it is impossible to say if
cloud-seeding really did trigger the most destructive storm in British
history, or if it was just an unfortunate coincidence. What is clear, is
that is that the government, anxious not to be blamed, closed the
project down and denied it had ever taken place.
A decade after the Lynemouth disaster, research on cloud-seeding was
to continue, this time in the United States with Project Stormfury. They
were hoping to use the technology to weaken hurricanes. What the
Stormfury scientists didn't realise, was that their research had caught
the eye of the military. Dr Joanne Simpson was one of the pioneers of
Project Stormfury. She was to find out, only much later, that the
military were developing her techniques and using them as a weapon of
war.
At that time, the United States army were in Vietnam struggling
against the Viet Cong, an elusive guerrilla army. The Pentagon were
desperate to explore anything that might give them an edge. So, when
military planners suggested that cloud-seeding might trigger massive
downpours and flood the Viet Cong's main supply routes, the government
were quick to respond.
Pierre Saint Amand
Dr Pierre Saint Amand was part of a team assembled in a top-secret
operation known simply as Project Popeye. The Ho Chi Minh trail was of
key strategic importance to the Viet Cong, the route along which vital
weapons and supplies were transported. In May 1967, as monsoon clouds
developed over the Ho Chi Minh trail, Armand and his team put their new
weapon to the test. The results were spectacular.
Having witnessed the success of this experiment, the military now
began to dream of more radical and extreme uses to which the technology
could be applied. Military planners imagined loading the clouds
with radiological, biological and chemical agents and having them rain
on demand. The belief was that you could attack your enemy using the
weather, but deny ever doing so.
Experiments in Vietnam continued for five years until a leak from The
White House blew the cover on Project Popeye. Allegations were made that
cloud-seeding had not only made jungle paths impassable, it had also
killed thousands of innocent people. Project Popeye had opened the door
to a new and dangerous type of warfare. The firestorm it created led to
an international treaty banning all use of weather modification for
military purposes. But, this didn't stop governments from continuing to
explore ways of modifying the weather, sometimes for highly questionable
purposes.
For decades, the Soviet Union seeded clouds before they reached
Moscow in order to prevent rainfall on their big military parades.
Harmless enough you may think but, evidence has recently come to light
that the Soviet authorities also used this technology for something much
more sinister.
Alan Flowers
On the 26th April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine,
exploded spewing hundreds of tons of radioactive material into the
atmosphere and creating the most horrific nuclear disaster in history.
In 1992, Dr Alan Flowers was one of the first western scientists
allowed into the area to examine the extent of the radioactive fallout.
He was working in Gomel, Belarus, an area between Chernobyl and Moscow.
Many children in Belarus were showing the effects of intense radioactive
poisoning. But, how was this possible so far from the reactor? Following
the explosion, there was a build up of heavily radioactive rain clouds
above Chernobyl. The prevailing winds threatened to blow these clouds
towards Russia and the major cities of Moscow and St Petersburg, but the
rain never reached these cities. Instead, bouts of very heavy rain fell
on the south-eastern corner of Belarus. Disturbingly, many eye-witnesses
claim that the rainfall was caused by cloud-seeding.
The Moscow authorities denied that cloud-seeding had taken place
after the accident. However, last year, at the 20th anniversary of the
Chernobyl disaster, among those honoured for their bravery was a pilot
names Major Alexsei Grushin. The award he received was for cloud-seeding
operations during the Chernobyl clean-up.
Further Reading:
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The Truth About
Chernobyl = Andrei Sakharov |
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Weather
Modification: Programs, Problems, Policy and Potential |
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Guidelines for
Cloud Seeding - Conrad G. Keyes |
