As a twin-turboprop plane takes to the air beneathneath the burning barren region solar with dozens of salt canisters connected to its wings, United Arab Emirates meteorological legit Abullah al-Hammadi scans climate maps on computer systems monitors for cloud formations.
At nine,000 ft above sea level, the aircraft releases salt flares into the maximum promising white clouds, hoping to cause rainfall.
“Cloud seeding calls for the lifestyles of wet clouds, and that is a hassle because it isn’t continually the case,” stated Hamadi, head of rain enhancement operations withinside the UAE’s National Centre for Meteorology.
The UAE, positioned in one of the most up to date and driest areas on earth, has been main the attempt to seed clouds and boom precipitation, which stays at much less than a hundred millimetres (3.nine inches) a yr on average.
The consequences of weather change, mixed with a developing populace and financial system diversifying into tourism and different regions have driven up call for for water withinside the UAE, which has depended on luxurious desalination vegetation that employ seawater.
Officials say they consider cloud seeding can help. Scientists in Abu Dhabi integrate taking pictures hygroscopic, or water-attracting, salt flares with freeing salt nanoparticles, a more moderen technology, into the clouds to stimulate and boost up the condensation system and with any luck produce droplets huge sufficient to then fall as rain.
“Cloud seeding will increase rainfall fees via way of means of about 10% to 30% in step with yr… According to our calculations, cloud seeding operations fee a great deal much less than the desalination system,” Hammadi stated.
Other nations withinside the region, consisting of Saudi Arabia and Iran, have introduced comparable plans as they face anciental droughts.
Edward Graham, a meteorologist on the University of the Highlands and Islands in Britain, stated the salt utilized in cloud seeding withinside the UAE does now no longer damage the environment.
“In phrases of carbon footprint, planes that fly up into the clouds are simply small planes, while as compared to the billions of motors in the world and the big planes doing worldwide air tour everyday, it is only a drop withinside the ocean,” he added.
Pilots primarily based totally on the UAE’s al-Ain airport should be geared up to take off at a moments notice, flying over the reddish-yellow barren region earlier than directing their plane into the clouds positioned at the meteorologists’ monitors.
“Cloud seeding is taken into consideration the second one toughest task for pilots,” stated one flyer, Ahmed al-Jaberi. “When there’s a cloud, we attempt to parent out the manner we want to head inside and out of it and keep away from thunderstorms or hail.”