The UAE is making it rain, literally.
The country’s new ‘rain enhancement’ project aims to promote the advancement of ‘rain science’ and promote the scary term of ‘weather modification’.
The general idea behind the program is a simple one: almost half of the world’s population is regularly faced with water shortages; which puts incredible pressure on limited water supplies. The UAE’s research program even goes as far to say that the lack of water could lead to “civil and inter-state conflicts.”
Hence the rain enhancement projects, which will spend US$1.5 million over the next few years to help increase rainfall and fresh water.
The UAE first looked in to rain enhancement back in 1990, and has since been working with the US Space Agency NASA as well as the World Meteorological Organization. The UAE now has more than 60 weather stations, an integrated weather radar network and five specialized aircraft for cloud seeding operations.
The UAE actually has an Emirates Weather Enhancement Factory, which created high-quality flairs to help promote rainfall. For those unawares, the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts use natural salts such as potassium chloride and sodium chloride (which are totally harmless).
While the immediate objective is to create more fresh water, the science could have much bigger applications for countries that could benefit from the advances in rain augmentation.
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