How Dubai creates artificial rain (6 photos)

Over the past 20 years, Dubai's population has grown 3.5 times - from a million to 3.5. The city has changed incredibly, everyone wants to live comfortably and well. But the trouble is that it is built in the desert - it is hot, dry, dusty. Few people like to live like this all the time.





Flooded road after artificial rain

And so Dubai came up with a technical solution to the problem - to control the weather itself using cloud seeding.

Yes, you can seed a cloud and cause a downpour at will. It's kind of genius because it used to be a science fiction thing, but now it's real.

What is cloud seeding and how does it work?

Cloud seeding is the practice of adding chemicals to clouds to make rain. Silver iodide particles, dropped by airplanes or drones, act as condensation nuclei and cause rain.



A large airplane is used for cloud seeding

That is, chemical particles are spread in supercooled clouds that are below the freezing point of water. These chemical particles act as surface nuclei around which water droplets can form.

These small crystals grow very quickly because the surrounding water vapor clings to the crystals. This is how snowflakes are formed. Having reached a critical weight, the snowflakes fall as rain from the clouds. If it were not for the artificially launched process, these clouds would never have poured over the city.





A visual diagram of how it all works

The very first such experiment was conducted back in 1946. It was done by the American chemist and meteorologist Vincent J. Schaefer.

Why is the UAE investing so much in this technology?

Because no other system can cope, the UAE is home to over a million people, when initially it was a settlement for 100 thousand people. And then it was possible to get by with water delivery, but not anymore.



The storm drains in the city are not so good

A study has shown that UAE residents consume an average of 500 liters of water per person per day. This is much more compared to the UK (334 liters per day), Asia (95 liters per day) and Africa (47 liters per day).

It's because it's so hot and dry there, you have to artificially support any plant. Turn away - it dies.



To be honest, the city itself is not always ready for such gifts from heaven

Desalination plants currently meet Dubai's water needs. However, each of these facilities costs $1 billion to build and requires a lot of energy to operate. They have to periodically water everyone with rain.

The Emirates Meteorological Center uses drones to target clouds with electrical discharges through concentrated lasers to cause rain on demand.



And did you know that there is a RAIN STREET, where it rains every day on purpose, so that the locals can enjoy the rain. And in October we still complain that there is a lot of rain. And for them, it is a value!

A very elegant solution for a desert country, my respect. True, such installations are not cheap, only a rich city can afford them, so this is not a solution for everyone yet.