Mohammad Sadat Hussain Rafsanjani :
Our weather is changing. Some says the hospitable nature of earth is threatened. For instance, according to the NASA, the carbon-di-oxides are at their highest rate in 650, 000 years. This creates havoc in the ocean water as it is absorbing more of it and acidity level is increasing. Seventeen warmest years in the history have been recorded since 2001; sea water level is increasing at a rate of 3.2-millimetre per year because of the rise in temperature. Ice sheets in the arctic areas are shrinking and recorded to the lowest extent back in 2012, the shrinking rate is 13.2 per cent per decade. If these events continue, no doubts, potential dangerous effects are waiting for us in not distant future. Duration and intensity of tropical storms will rise, draught will be longer in some regions and we have to deal with frequent wildfire events. Evidences are omni, extreme events like hurricane, tornado and wildfire are becoming more imminent and striking us again and again. Experts say, “It is high time we modified the climate to preserve the natural balance. Like the genetically modified organism (GMO) and human cloning, the ethical issues are considerable and questionable. But, playing God comes with price.”
To discuss in detail, we must know the exact definition of geo-engineering beforehand. Geo-engineering or climate engineering refers to the deliberate modification of environment on a large scale to suit human needs in order to promote habitability. This may take place in tow forms: temperature management by blocking the sun rays or reflecting it back using giant mirrors placed in the earth orbit and secondly, carbon management which gradually lessens the carbon from atmosphere. Owning the weather is difficult but over the years, scientists have developed many options and technologies namely hurricane control, cloud seeding, ionospheric heaters, storm absorbing super gels, nanoscale weather machines etc.
One of the earliest weather modification technologies is cloud seeding which was first discovered in 1946 following a serendipitous incident. Three scientists at General Electrics were experimenting to create cloud in the laboratory. They filled a glass chamber with water vapor but could not be able to make one. Then suddenly one scientist put his hand in the pocket and his hands touched some silver coins inside the pocket. As soon as he put his hand in the glass chamber, cloud started forming. It was later found out that his hand contained silver dusts which acted as an added impurity for the glass chamber. This is how the technique was developed. In a standard scenario, a plane carrying silver iodide sprays it from below the cloud. Another plane sprays dry ice from above the cloud, a freezing agent forcing water vapor to freeze around it. If all goes well, rain drops will replace the hail formation. Today, at least 56 countries have adopted this system which is carried out by 34 private companies worldwide. Western Kansas Weather Modification program heavily employs cloud seeding in large scale to prevent hailstorm. Hailstorm costs millions of dollars every year around the world, it heavily damages properties, crops, animal life and farming. Western Kansas has high rate of hailstorm. Insurance industries are the biggest investors in the program because they know how damaging it is. The program mainly targets prematurely built natural clouds which are relatively inefficient in rain production. Clouds are made of tiny droplets of water vapor. Until an impurity is present, these water droplets cannot conjugate and form water drop 100 times big enough so that the earth’s gravity can pull it down. Cloud seeding does exactly that thing, adding an impurity; it is called the condensation nuclei. Cloud seeders use aero plane equipped with sodium iodide. This impurity helps to condense water vapor and prevents it from becoming a hail. Cloud seeding is very risky as the pilot has to face turbulence, lightning etc. that other pilots tends to avoid. The technology is also criticised heavily. Conspiracy theorists say cloud seeding is used to manipulate weather, create flood and military weapon testing. Even the use of silver iodide is also questioned though the fatality is negligible. Weather and war has a strong link. From time to time weather played a vital role in the battle field as it can act as an ally or play the villain. History teaches us how Napoleon lost to the Russian due to winter and Japanese Kamikaze pilots used storm to cover the attack on Pearl Harbor. So, the military involvement in the weather modification program was imminent. First noted such event occurred in 13 October, 1947. The goal was to modify the path of a hurricane. This was collaboration between US Air Force, US Army Signal Corps, General Electric Corporation and office of the Naval Research. A team of people flew right above a hurricane that was heading to the sea and dropped 36 kilograms of dry ice in to the clouds. Unfortunately, the hurricane turned its direction towards Georgia which left huge property damaged. Public blamed that the seeding was the main reason for this mess.
The project was cancelled and halted for eleven years. But it was later found out that the hurricane started turning its direction already during the seeding took place. This was known as project Cirrus. Similar project was run later, from 1962 to 1983 by US Government called Project Stormfury.
From 1967, United States Airforce had made 2600 secret cloud seeding flights. These flights were part of a special assignment, code named Project Popeye. The goal was to modify weather during wartime. Although there is no sufficient proof that US Airforce had success, but some incidents were recorded during the Vietnam war starting from 1967 to 1972. There were total four objectives: softening roads, causing landslide, washing out river crossing and maintaining saturated soil condition. Clouds were heavily seeded in North Vietnam and Laos to produce sufficient rainfall so that the communication between the North and South deteriorates and in turns vehicle and on foot movement became extremely difficult. Continuous rainfall flooded the roads even when the season was dry. Generally, the dry season starts there from November and continues to April. The first seeding experiment was performed on October, 1966 in the valley of Se Kong River. The experiment was conducted without the consultation of Laos authorities. As the military achieved success, weather war grabbed great attentions. US Senate voted against to cut off funding for the program. On December 10, 1976 the United Nation passed general assembly resolution 3122 to ban weather modification in warfare.
Project Cirrus inspired new technologies like moister observing gel. An independent company called Dyn-O-Mat run by inventor Peter Cordani created a powder that can absorb water quickly 2000 times of its weight and locks it into a non-toxic gel like substance. The temperature decreases 10 to 15 degrees. When added water, it again liquidates. This was tested on July 19, 2001 when 4000-kilogram powder was poured on a storm cloud and the cloud simply vanished.
US Air Force also adopted the same principle but they used another element, fly ash. An industrial bi-product, fly ash is proposed to use against rogue clouds that abet in forming thunders. Thunders are the key players in creating hurricanes. Their main goal is to disrupt the final phase.
As the era of space satellite begun, weather forecasting system emerges with greater approximation power. But this same system is used to gather and store large amount of data which in turn can be used to not only predict the weather but also control them. Scientist now has advance simulation software which can virtually create, modify or predict the direction of an ensuing hurricane. Note that, weather anomalies like hurricane are prone to change and turn massive for a small effect. In mathematics this is called chaos where approximate present does not approximately define the future.
More definitely the butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. In case of hurricane, water evaporates from ocean and starts to build the wall of it. If the water is covered with olive oil, it can deflect the hurricane and slow down the evaporation process.
But some weather modification programs are not only controversial but they care both mysterious and allegedly weapon grade. This one is called HAARP, stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a facility established in 1993 by US Airforce, Navy, University of Alaska of Fairbanks and DARPA. Initially it was designed with the intention of studying ionosphere and developing communication technology. Ionosphere is the part of upper atmosphere of earth, starts from 60km above earth surface and ends at 1000km. Here particles exist in ionized form due to solar radiation. This layer is very important for earth because it absorbs and deflects solar radiation, charged particles and auroral dusts. Without this layer, life would have perished. HAARP acts as a heater; it can raise the temperature of 1000 square kilometer ionosphere area to 50,000-degree by projecting heat wave as the form or radio frequency. Such massive heating can be devastating. HAARP consists of total 180 antennas, a phased array which is steerable so that one can control the direction of the radio frequency from point to point. The heat wave is so powerful that it can lift the ionosphere in massive range which in turns control the pressure system or even modify the jet stream of a certain area. Such uncontrolled weather modification may have adverse effect on earth.
A small-scale change in weather system may cause disruption in other systems. Even HAARP is capable to destroy enemy missile in the air as it can be used as a directed energy weapon alternative.
Weather modification seems to offer realistic counter measures and short-term solutions to weather catastrophes but the long-term effects are unknown. For instance, it cannot reduce the carbon-di-oxide concentration let alone emission rate. Political implications are also a burning issue. As the technology is very expensive, it needs huge amount of funding from several nations on a continuous basis. Hence commercialization of earth science-based solution companies is rising up.
Atmospheric science corporations are competing for proving better weather modification services. Currently Weather Modification Incorporated, a USA based company has 19 clients around the world. GeoEngineers, another Portland, USA based company has more than 200 technical staffs specializing in earth science and weather modification consultancy. Global Thermostat, a prominent company which specializes in carbon negative solution has got recognition in recent times for their support.
(Writer is a Software Engineer,
Service Engine BPO)
Our weather is changing. Some says the hospitable nature of earth is threatened. For instance, according to the NASA, the carbon-di-oxides are at their highest rate in 650, 000 years. This creates havoc in the ocean water as it is absorbing more of it and acidity level is increasing. Seventeen warmest years in the history have been recorded since 2001; sea water level is increasing at a rate of 3.2-millimetre per year because of the rise in temperature. Ice sheets in the arctic areas are shrinking and recorded to the lowest extent back in 2012, the shrinking rate is 13.2 per cent per decade. If these events continue, no doubts, potential dangerous effects are waiting for us in not distant future. Duration and intensity of tropical storms will rise, draught will be longer in some regions and we have to deal with frequent wildfire events. Evidences are omni, extreme events like hurricane, tornado and wildfire are becoming more imminent and striking us again and again. Experts say, “It is high time we modified the climate to preserve the natural balance. Like the genetically modified organism (GMO) and human cloning, the ethical issues are considerable and questionable. But, playing God comes with price.”
To discuss in detail, we must know the exact definition of geo-engineering beforehand. Geo-engineering or climate engineering refers to the deliberate modification of environment on a large scale to suit human needs in order to promote habitability. This may take place in tow forms: temperature management by blocking the sun rays or reflecting it back using giant mirrors placed in the earth orbit and secondly, carbon management which gradually lessens the carbon from atmosphere. Owning the weather is difficult but over the years, scientists have developed many options and technologies namely hurricane control, cloud seeding, ionospheric heaters, storm absorbing super gels, nanoscale weather machines etc.
One of the earliest weather modification technologies is cloud seeding which was first discovered in 1946 following a serendipitous incident. Three scientists at General Electrics were experimenting to create cloud in the laboratory. They filled a glass chamber with water vapor but could not be able to make one. Then suddenly one scientist put his hand in the pocket and his hands touched some silver coins inside the pocket. As soon as he put his hand in the glass chamber, cloud started forming. It was later found out that his hand contained silver dusts which acted as an added impurity for the glass chamber. This is how the technique was developed. In a standard scenario, a plane carrying silver iodide sprays it from below the cloud. Another plane sprays dry ice from above the cloud, a freezing agent forcing water vapor to freeze around it. If all goes well, rain drops will replace the hail formation. Today, at least 56 countries have adopted this system which is carried out by 34 private companies worldwide. Western Kansas Weather Modification program heavily employs cloud seeding in large scale to prevent hailstorm. Hailstorm costs millions of dollars every year around the world, it heavily damages properties, crops, animal life and farming. Western Kansas has high rate of hailstorm. Insurance industries are the biggest investors in the program because they know how damaging it is. The program mainly targets prematurely built natural clouds which are relatively inefficient in rain production. Clouds are made of tiny droplets of water vapor. Until an impurity is present, these water droplets cannot conjugate and form water drop 100 times big enough so that the earth’s gravity can pull it down. Cloud seeding does exactly that thing, adding an impurity; it is called the condensation nuclei. Cloud seeders use aero plane equipped with sodium iodide. This impurity helps to condense water vapor and prevents it from becoming a hail. Cloud seeding is very risky as the pilot has to face turbulence, lightning etc. that other pilots tends to avoid. The technology is also criticised heavily. Conspiracy theorists say cloud seeding is used to manipulate weather, create flood and military weapon testing. Even the use of silver iodide is also questioned though the fatality is negligible. Weather and war has a strong link. From time to time weather played a vital role in the battle field as it can act as an ally or play the villain. History teaches us how Napoleon lost to the Russian due to winter and Japanese Kamikaze pilots used storm to cover the attack on Pearl Harbor. So, the military involvement in the weather modification program was imminent. First noted such event occurred in 13 October, 1947. The goal was to modify the path of a hurricane. This was collaboration between US Air Force, US Army Signal Corps, General Electric Corporation and office of the Naval Research. A team of people flew right above a hurricane that was heading to the sea and dropped 36 kilograms of dry ice in to the clouds. Unfortunately, the hurricane turned its direction towards Georgia which left huge property damaged. Public blamed that the seeding was the main reason for this mess.
The project was cancelled and halted for eleven years. But it was later found out that the hurricane started turning its direction already during the seeding took place. This was known as project Cirrus. Similar project was run later, from 1962 to 1983 by US Government called Project Stormfury.
From 1967, United States Airforce had made 2600 secret cloud seeding flights. These flights were part of a special assignment, code named Project Popeye. The goal was to modify weather during wartime. Although there is no sufficient proof that US Airforce had success, but some incidents were recorded during the Vietnam war starting from 1967 to 1972. There were total four objectives: softening roads, causing landslide, washing out river crossing and maintaining saturated soil condition. Clouds were heavily seeded in North Vietnam and Laos to produce sufficient rainfall so that the communication between the North and South deteriorates and in turns vehicle and on foot movement became extremely difficult. Continuous rainfall flooded the roads even when the season was dry. Generally, the dry season starts there from November and continues to April. The first seeding experiment was performed on October, 1966 in the valley of Se Kong River. The experiment was conducted without the consultation of Laos authorities. As the military achieved success, weather war grabbed great attentions. US Senate voted against to cut off funding for the program. On December 10, 1976 the United Nation passed general assembly resolution 3122 to ban weather modification in warfare.
Project Cirrus inspired new technologies like moister observing gel. An independent company called Dyn-O-Mat run by inventor Peter Cordani created a powder that can absorb water quickly 2000 times of its weight and locks it into a non-toxic gel like substance. The temperature decreases 10 to 15 degrees. When added water, it again liquidates. This was tested on July 19, 2001 when 4000-kilogram powder was poured on a storm cloud and the cloud simply vanished.
US Air Force also adopted the same principle but they used another element, fly ash. An industrial bi-product, fly ash is proposed to use against rogue clouds that abet in forming thunders. Thunders are the key players in creating hurricanes. Their main goal is to disrupt the final phase.
As the era of space satellite begun, weather forecasting system emerges with greater approximation power. But this same system is used to gather and store large amount of data which in turn can be used to not only predict the weather but also control them. Scientist now has advance simulation software which can virtually create, modify or predict the direction of an ensuing hurricane. Note that, weather anomalies like hurricane are prone to change and turn massive for a small effect. In mathematics this is called chaos where approximate present does not approximately define the future.
More definitely the butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. In case of hurricane, water evaporates from ocean and starts to build the wall of it. If the water is covered with olive oil, it can deflect the hurricane and slow down the evaporation process.
But some weather modification programs are not only controversial but they care both mysterious and allegedly weapon grade. This one is called HAARP, stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a facility established in 1993 by US Airforce, Navy, University of Alaska of Fairbanks and DARPA. Initially it was designed with the intention of studying ionosphere and developing communication technology. Ionosphere is the part of upper atmosphere of earth, starts from 60km above earth surface and ends at 1000km. Here particles exist in ionized form due to solar radiation. This layer is very important for earth because it absorbs and deflects solar radiation, charged particles and auroral dusts. Without this layer, life would have perished. HAARP acts as a heater; it can raise the temperature of 1000 square kilometer ionosphere area to 50,000-degree by projecting heat wave as the form or radio frequency. Such massive heating can be devastating. HAARP consists of total 180 antennas, a phased array which is steerable so that one can control the direction of the radio frequency from point to point. The heat wave is so powerful that it can lift the ionosphere in massive range which in turns control the pressure system or even modify the jet stream of a certain area. Such uncontrolled weather modification may have adverse effect on earth.
A small-scale change in weather system may cause disruption in other systems. Even HAARP is capable to destroy enemy missile in the air as it can be used as a directed energy weapon alternative.
Weather modification seems to offer realistic counter measures and short-term solutions to weather catastrophes but the long-term effects are unknown. For instance, it cannot reduce the carbon-di-oxide concentration let alone emission rate. Political implications are also a burning issue. As the technology is very expensive, it needs huge amount of funding from several nations on a continuous basis. Hence commercialization of earth science-based solution companies is rising up.
Atmospheric science corporations are competing for proving better weather modification services. Currently Weather Modification Incorporated, a USA based company has 19 clients around the world. GeoEngineers, another Portland, USA based company has more than 200 technical staffs specializing in earth science and weather modification consultancy. Global Thermostat, a prominent company which specializes in carbon negative solution has got recognition in recent times for their support.
(Writer is a Software Engineer,
Service Engine BPO)
