The Magic of Cloud Seeding

Picture yourself getting ready to spend time with your friends at Rockefeller Park to witness the annual Christmas tree lighting. Unfortunately, there is no snow to enhance your magical experience. Suddenly, you see tiny snowflakes fall from the sky, and you take out your Polaroid to envision the moment.

Many people believe that clouds are made entirely from water vapor, which is a gas. However, when there is a surplus of water vapor in the air, tiny water droplets are formed through the process of condensation. These droplets clasp onto microscopic particles in the air and start forming larger groups of droplets, which form the clouds we see in the sky. 

Cloud seeding is a specific technique that manipulates the process of condensation in the sky to increase the amount of precipitation in a certain area. This famous procedure was invented in 1946 by American scientist Vincent Joseph Schaefer. It is present in eight U.S. states, including California, Texas, Nevada, and Colorado. A seeding agent, also known as a minute particle, is used as a base for water droplets to latch onto. Popular examples of seeding agents include silver iodine and dry ice. Places with an abundance of naturally occurring agents, like dust particles, volcanic ash, and smoke, are more likely to see successes since scientists do not need to artificially create the seeds. This is beneficial for areas with common wildfires or prevalent geological features. Water droplets then gradually bond with one another to form clouds. 

Silver iodine (AgI) is the most popular seeding agent used due to its hexagonal structure. The structure resembles that of naturally occurring ice, and it acts like a template for a snowflake, making it easier to mimic actual snowfall. Along with this, AgI is used to create rainfall since places with higher temperatures allow snowflakes to melt into water particles before hitting the ground. AgI promotes the growth of ice crystals at warmer temperatures, allowing precipitation to occur at a faster rate while also being a stable compound that is insoluble in water, which means that it will not break down into pure silver and harm organisms. AgI is burned into the atmosphere where water particles can cling onto it. 

The Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE) conducted a two-month long experiment from January 7, 2017 to March 17, 2017 on cloud seeding. Researchers wanted to look for a potential increase in water supply; how the process of precipitation forms; and how it can be manipulated through this method. In southwest Idaho, an aircraft flew straight into the clouds and released AgI plumes to detect and measure the impacts of seeding. Since AgI is the most effective and popularized seeding agent, researchers felt confident in gaining active results on the changes in weather conditions. Scientists discovered small patches of clouds through the radar in certain areas while there was heavy snowfall in the Payette and south area. 

The advancement of cloud seeding opens up many new possibilities such as agricultural gain. Due to increased rainfall, crops are able to grow rapidly in large amounts of land. Research engineer Dr. Daniel Martin, based in College Station, Texas, found a 25 to 30 percent increase in rainfall with the use of cloud seeding compared to with flare technology, which only reported a 10 to 15 percent increase. Additionally, the cost of producing rainfall with cloud seeding is much cheaper than desalination, a process of removing salts and minerals from water in order to make it usable. U.S. company Source Global Developer Rob Bartrop states that there is more water in the atmosphere than in most major bodies of water combined. Cloud seeding allows researchers to draw more water from the atmosphere and convert it into rainfall. Many industries, such as tourism, hydro powering, and agriculture, can heavily benefit from the results of cloud seeding. In terms of daily life, cloud seeding provides an alternative to a freshwater source. With extra rainfall, cities are able to implement urban greenery in places where rainfall may not be as common. The natural process of evaporation is only geared towards water molecules. Therefore, cloud seeding naturally purifies the water, producing the same effects as desalination. While desalination would be more beneficial when dealing with small amounts of water—individuals could boil water to kill bacteria before drinking through distillation, cloud seeding is much more valuable in places where water is limited because the process generates large amounts of purified water.

However, major developments in cloud seeding create ethical controversies. Many people drag religion into the ethicality of cloud seeding, often stating that only God can and should be able to control the weather. Weather control could also potentially be used as a war tactic, allowing people to use certain weather conditions to harm others. A specific example of this is linked to events like Operation Popeye during the Vietnam War when the U.S. military used weather modification against their enemies. This resulted in a treaty banning weather modification for military uses. Another study conducted through SNOWIE revealed that cloud seeding can only be used for water management through the long-term build up of water droplets. Therefore, cloud seeding is highly unlikely to be used as an alternative for a short-term solution to the scarce water use prevalent in many countries worldwide.

Cloud seeding could also alter ecosystems and contribute to global warming. Excess levels of water in many regions would be prone to rising even faster. However, cloud seeding may be beneficial to drier areas affected by the excruciating temperatures of global warming, serving as a cool bath for the environment. 

In February 1950, in the heart of New York City, a drought affected all five boroughs. Luckily, meteorologist Wallace Howell was able to generate snowfall using dry ice. After many failed attempts, he descended on Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, where pilots helped drop 100 pounds of dry ice onto the clouds. This increased snowfall in New York City by a very small amount. Through more attempts, he was able to increase rainfall gradually, although he was never proven to have drastically changed the weather.

As Stuyvesant students, our long commute in the early hours of the morning can seem painful. Weather is psychologically known to have a correlation with people’s moods. Everyday life for individuals in the heart of New York City may become more difficult if cloud seeding is implemented due to the frequent rain or snowfall, especially as flooding becomes more of a public safety concern. As more research is done on cloud seeding and its fascinating way of manipulating the weather, many people raise questions about its procedure and effects.