Как можно изменить погоду

Что такое погода и что такое климат

Для начала немного проясним, что такое погода и климат и чем они отличаются друг от друга. Фактически мы живем на дне воздушного океана, который называется атмосферой. Это гигантский океан, обладающий ни с чем не сравнимой энергией. Масса атмосферы Земли составляет 5,1–5,3·10¹⁸ килограммов, или иначе 5,1–5,3 квинтиллионов килограммов (один квинтиллион – это, проще говоря, миллиард миллиардов). Благодаря гравитации Земли атмосфера не только удерживается около планеты, но и вращается вместе с ней как единое целое.

Термин «погода» относится к состоянию атмосферы в конкретный момент. Погодные явления, такие как дождь, снег, туман и так далее, происходят в нижней части атмосферы – начиная от поверхности Земли и до высоты примерно 11 километров (так называемой тропосферы), и частично в следующем более высоком слое – стратосфере, до 50 километров над уровнем моря. Кстати, именно в тропосфере, нижнем слое земной атмосферы, содержится более 80 % всей массы воздуха и около 90 % всего имеющегося в атмосфере водяного пара.

Погода, как состояние атмосферы в текущий момент и в конкретном месте, имеет целый ряд значимых характеристик. Значимых как с точки зрения комфорта человека, так и для сельского хозяйства или ведения военных действий. Эти характеристики, называемые также метеорологическими элементами, включают в себя температуру и влажность воздуха, величину атмосферного давления, направление и силу ветра, наличие атмосферных осадков, атмосферные явления (туманы, метели, грозы), дальность видимости и так далее. И, что важно понимать, как для прогнозирования погоды, так и для управления ею, все они взаимосвязаны между собой.

В целом, погода в той или иной местности меняется в рамках определенных параметров, которые установлены в результате многолетних наблюдений. Среднее состояние атмосферы за длительный период времени в конкретной местности называется климатом. По сути, климат – это многолетний режим погоды.

Способы управления погодой

Основная технология коррекции погоды заключается в активном воздействии на облака. Самый известный способ заключается в их «засеве» химическими реагентами. Благодаря этому можно заставить облако пролиться дождем или рассеяться. В том числе можно вызвать дождь там, где ему пролиться можно, чтобы он не пошел там, где ему идти точно нельзя.

Таким способом обеспечивается солнечная погода в Москве в дни праздничных мероприятий. А в Китае, например, перед церемонией открытия Олимпийских игр в 2008 году дожди прошли на подступах к Пекину. Во время церемонии над столицей Олимпиады не было ни облачка.

Собственно, надо сказать, что облака, а также такие атмосферные явления, как дождь, снег или град, возможны на нашей планете потому, что температурные условия нижних слоев атмосферы Земли позволяют воде пребывать во всех трех агрегатных состояниях – в газообразном, твердом и жидком. Воздействуя на облака с помощью реагентов, можно добиться перехода воды из одного состояния в другое.  

Еще в середине прошлого века было установлено, что иодид серебра и иодида свинца способствуют появлению центров кристаллизации воды в облаках. При «посеве» реагентами (а сейчас применяют в зависимости от видов облаков также гранулы углекислоты, порошки цемента, талька или гипса) в облаках происходит преждевременная кристаллизация влаги, и в результате происходит выпадение осадков. Распыляются реагенты, как правило, с самолетов. Похожим образом ведется и борьба с градом.

Способ заключается в следующем. Градины образуются в облаках в результате замерзания влаги на ядрах кристаллизации. В отличие от дождя, такие кристаллы не успевают растаять на подлете к поверхности и выпадают в виде града. Если в облаке таких ядер кристаллизации мало, то образовавшиеся градины достигают больших размеров и тем самым способны причинить значительный ущерб сельскохозяйственным насаждениям, имуществу и даже людям.

Чтобы предотвратить рост градин в облаке, нужно увеличить количество центров кристаллизации. С использованием противоградовых ракет или специально оборудованных самолетов в облака вносят реагенты, которые выступают дополнительными центрами кристаллизации. Искусственные, привнесенные в облако ядра кристаллизации вступают в конкуренцию за влагу, содержащуюся в облаке, с естественными. В результате получается больше льдинок, которые имеют меньший размер. На пути к поверхности они растают и превратятся в капли дождя, либо выпадут в виде мелкой ледяной крупы, которая уже не будет представлять никакой опасности.

Аналогичным образом проводятся работы и по рассеиванию туманов. Практическую хозяйственную значимость это имеет в районах аэропортов, так как позволяет увеличить дальность видимости и обеспечивает взлет и посадку самолетов.

Вот тут бы и продолжить, но другие способы коррекции погоды широкого хозяйственного применения пока не нашли и остаются на стадии экспериментов. Но о некоторых интересных экспериментах сказать стоит.

Так, интересны опыты, в которых предполагается воздействие на облака с помощью лазеров. Такие эксперименты уже проводятся учеными по всему миру. По мнению экспертов, необходимую для выпадения осадков концентрацию водяных паров можно создать с помощью лазерного луча. Лабораторные тесты показывают, что лишенные электронов атомы образуют в воздухе положительно заряженные ядра кристаллизации. В результате практически так же, как и в случае с химическими реагентами, происходит рост ледяных или дождевых капель. Но если при использовании йодистого серебра или сухого льда требуется облако, то при использовании лазера можно обойтись и без него. Дождь, по заверениям ученых, можно будет вызвать на пустом месте, буквально взяв влагу из атмосферы. Одним из препятствий при использовании этого метода был эффект рассеивания лазерного луча в атмосфере. Но, по сообщениям СМИ, американским ученым удалось его преодолеть.

Не желают оставаться в стороне и ученые из Объединенных Арабских Эмиратов. Что неудивительно, ведь в жарких странах необходимость в дожде ощущается особенно остро. Во время одного из опытов по вызову дождя в пустыне разместили несколько гигантских ионизаторов. С их помощью в небо поднимаются отрицательно заряженные ионы. Они притягивают частицы пыли, а те собирают вокруг себя влагу из воздуха.

Проекты изменения климата

Управлять текущей погодой – это одно, а целенаправленно изменять климат на выбранной территории – это совсем другое. Повысить или, наоборот, уменьшить среднегодовую температуру, сбалансировать количество осадков или остановить ветра – заветная мечта многих энтузиастов. Вот только делать это мы пока не научились. Но проекты изменения климата есть, и достаточно интересные.

Если говорить о России, то особый интерес представляют проекты по изменению климата в дальневосточных регионах нашей страны. Депутаты городской думы Владивостока, например, не так давно предлагали изменить русло реки Амур. Это приведет к изменению движения морских течений в Японском море и Татарском проливе, а в результате – к улучшению климата на всем Дальнем Востоке. Однако идея повлиять на морские течения с целью изменения климата в Приморье не нова. В далеком 1894 году поступило предложение перекрыть плотиной Татарский пролив, отделяющий Сахалин от материка. Другая идея, появившаяся в советское время, наоборот, предлагала расширить пролив в самом узком его месте – проливе Невельского. Это позволило бы направить в Охотское море теплое Цусимское течение. Подобное внимание к Приморью неудивительно. Ведь Владивосток находится на той же широте, что и Сочи, но климат имеет совсем не южный. Да и тема подогрева территорий с помощью морских течений весьма заманчива.

Не стоит забывать, что климат Европы определяется во многом Гольфстримом – теплым течением в Атлантическом океане. Вот если бы такое течение было у нас на Дальнем Востоке, то Тихоокеанское побережье России от Владивостока до Магадана было бы очень  удобным местом для проживания.  

Авторы проектов уже представляют себе незамерзающие порты, цветущие сады и курорты в этом достаточно холодном краю. Такой климат способствовал бы притоку населения и освоению Дальнего Востока.

Но изменить климат можно не только меняя направление морских течений. Более глобальный план изменения естественных природных условий, результаты реализации которого должны были затронуть климат во многих регионах нашей страны, попытались реализовать в конце сороковых годов прошлого века. В историю он вошел как «Сталинский план преобразования природы». План, разработанный ведущими учеными страны, предусматривал два основных способа воздействия на природу: создание лесонасаждений и искусственных водоемов.

В степных и лесостепных районах страны, от Украины до Казахстана, предполагалось высадить восемь крупный лесополос, протяженность которых превышала бы 5300 километров, а общая площадь лесопосадок составила бы 112 000 гектаров. Лесополосы должны были защитить от суховеев – жарких юго-восточных ветров. Одновременно началось создание широкой сети оросительных систем. Созданы несколько тысяч прудов и водоемов. Для ускорения лесопосадок были разработаны лесохозяйственные машины для одновременной семиполосной посадки деревьев.

Если бы план удалось реализовать, то это привело бы к изменению климата на площади, равной территориям Франции, Великобритании, Италии, Бельгии и Нидерландов вместе взятых. Климат стал бы более приемлемым для сельского хозяйства. Урожай с сельскохозяйственных полей на этой территории мог бы обеспечить продовольствием половину жителей Земли. Но после 1953 года выполнение плана было свернуто.

Впрочем, лесопосадки не прекращаются и по сей день. Так называемые «киотские» леса закладываются на территориях Нижегородской, Ульяновской и Омской областей. По замыслу авторов Киотского протокола, высаженные леса не только поспособствуют улучшению климата на планете, но и позволят заработать странам, на которых они разводятся, за счет продажи квот на выброс в атмосферу парниковых газов.

Другим регионом Земли, где правительства остро заинтересованы в управляемом изменении климата, является Ближний Восток. Особенно нефтедобывающие страны Аравийского полуострова, у которых и деньги для впечатляющих и дорогостоящих проектов имеются. Объединенные Арабские Эмираты, для того чтобы изменить свой засушливый климат, решили возвести искусственную гору. 400 миллионов долларов выделили власти Эмиратов ученым из Национального центра метеорологии и сейсмологии и Национального центра атмосферных исследований (США). Предстоит определить общий размер искусственного сооружения, его высоту и пологость склонов, а также в каком районе страны лучше всего ее построить. Около горы будут формироваться дождевые облака, которые в дальнейшем можно будет разгонять по разным районам страны.

Кстати, по мнению ученых, для изменения климата в Приморье трогать течения не обязательно. Строительство горного хребта на севере Приморского края (если это когда-нибудь станет возможным) предотвратит проникновение в регион холодного воздуха. В результате чего во Владивостоке зимой станет теплее. А вот строительство не хребтов и даже не гор, а стен, по мнению американских ученых, позволит снизить угрозу возникновения торнадо. Три стены высотой 300 метров каждая, построенные в разных частях Соединенных Штатов, позволили бы предотвратить торнадо, а вместе с ними и многомиллиардные убытки, которые те приносят.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Weather modification is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, which increases rain or snow, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water supply.^[1] Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or hurricanes, from occurring; or of provoking damaging weather against the enemy, as a tactic of military or economic warfare like Operation Popeye, where clouds were seeded to prolong the monsoon in Vietnam. Weather modification in warfare has been banned by the United Nations under the Environmental Modification Convention.

History[edit]

A popular belief in Northern Europe that shooting prevents hail caused many agricultural towns to fire cannons without ammunition. Veterans of the Seven Years’ War, Napoleonic wars, and the American Civil War reported that rain fell after every large battle. After their stories were collected in War and Weather, the United States Department of War in the late 19th century purchased $9,000 of gunpowder and explosives to detonate them in Texas, in hopes of condensing water vapor into rain. The results of the test, supervised by Robert Dyrenforth, were inconclusive.^[2]

Wilhelm Reich performed cloudbusting experiments in the 1950s, the results of which are controversial and was not widely accepted by mainstream science.

In November 1954 the Thailand Royal Rainmaking Project (Thai: โครงการฝนหลวง) was initiated by the King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He discovered that many areas faced the problem of drought. Over 82 percent of Thai agricultural land relied on rainfall. Thai farmers were not able to grow crops for lack of water. The royal rainmaking project debuted on 20 July 1969 at his behest, when the first rainmaking attempt was made at Khao Yai National Park. Dry ice flakes were scattered over clouds. Reportedly, some rainfall resulted. In 1971, the government established the Artificial Rainmaking Research and Development Project within the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives^{[3][circular reference]}

In January 2011, several newspapers and magazines, including the UK’s Sunday Times and Arabian Business, reported that scientists backed by the government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, had created over 50 artificial rainstorms between July and August 2010 near Al Ain, a city which lies close to the country’s border with Oman and is the second-largest city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The artificial rainstorms were said to have sometimes caused hail, gales and thunderstorms, baffling local residents.^[4]

The Chinese have told the world they can control the weather and that the Olympic Games there would not be hampered by bad weather conditions. They also have a government office called: Beijing Weather Modification Office, which is under the national weather control office.^[5][6]

Cloud seeding[edit]

Cloud seeding is a common technique to enhance precipitation. Cloud seeding entails spraying small particles, such as silver iodide, onto clouds to attempt to affect their development, usually with the goal of increasing precipitation. Cloud seeding only works to the extent that there is already water vapor present in the air. Critics generally contend that claimed successes occur in conditions which were going to lead to rain anyway. It is used in a variety of drought-prone countries, including the United States, China, India, and Russia. In China there is a perceived dependency upon it in dry regions, and there is a strong suspicion it is used to «wash the air» in dry and heavily polluted places, such as Beijing.^[7] In mountainous areas of the United States such as the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada,^[8] cloud seeding has been employed since the 1950s.

Project Cirrus was an attempt by General Electric to modify the weather which ran from 1947-1952. During that time, under the supervision of the United States Air Force, attempts were made to create snowstorms and seed hurricanes by using silver iodide. While General Electric reported positive results, they also acknowledged that their experiments were controversial.^[9]

The United Arab Emirates has been cloud seeding since the 2000s and aims to increase rainfall by 15-30% per year. The materials used are potassium chloride, sodium chloride, magnesium, and other materials.^[10][11]

Consequences[edit]

Societal[edit]

Not having adequate systems to handle weather modification may have disastrous consequences. «In the city of Jeddah in Western Saudi Arabia was damaged by floods in 2009 that reportedly killed more than 100 people; igniting questions of why the country doesn’t have effective drainage systems in place.»^[11]

Human[edit]

The U.S. National Library of Medicine notes that the silver iodide has no known “ill effects” on people, although people’s “hands may have remained yellowed for weeks” after being exposed to it.^[12]

Storm prevention[edit]

Project Stormfury was an attempt to weaken tropical cyclones by flying aircraft into storms and seeding the eyewall with silver iodide. The project was run by the United States Government from 1962 to 1983. A similar project using soot was run in 1958, with inconclusive results.^[13] Various methods have been proposed to reduce the harmful effects of hurricanes. Moshe Alamaro of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[14] proposed using barges with upward-pointing jet engines to trigger smaller storms to disrupt the progress of an incoming hurricane; critics doubt the jets would be powerful enough to make any noticeable difference.^[13]

Alexandre Chorin of the University of California, Berkeley, proposed dropping large amounts of environmentally friendly oils on the sea surface to prevent droplet formation.^[15] Experiments by Kerry Emanuel^[16] of MIT in 2002 suggested that hurricane-force winds would disrupt the oil slick, making it ineffective.^[13] Other scientists disputed the factual basis of the theoretical mechanism assumed by this approach.^[15]

The Florida company Dyn-O-Mat and its CEO, Peter Cordani, proposed the use of a patented product it developed, called Dyn-O-Gel, to reduce the strength of hurricanes. The substance is a polymer in powder form (a polyacrylic acid derivative) which reportedly has the ability to absorb 1,500 times its own weight in water. The theory is that the polymer is dropped into clouds to remove their moisture and force the storm to use more energy to move the heavier water drops, thus helping to dissipate the storm. When the gel reaches the ocean surface, it is reportedly dissolved. Peter Cordani teamed up with Mark Daniels and Victor Miller, the owners of a government contracting aviation firm AeroGroup which operated ex-military aircraft commercially. Using a high altitude B-57 Bomber, AeroGroup tested the substance dropping 9,000 pounds from the B-57 aircraft’s large bomb bay dispersing it into a large thunderstorm cell just off the east coast of Florida. The tests were documented on film and made international news showing the storms were successfully removed on monitored Doppler radar. In 2003, the program was shut down because of political pressure through NOAA.^[17] Numerical simulations performed by NOAA showed however that it would not be a practical solution for large systems like a tropical cyclone.^[18]

Hail cannons have been used by some farmers since the 19th century in an attempt to ward off hail, but there is no reliable scientific evidence to confirm their effectiveness. Another new anti-hurricane technology^[19] is a method for the reduction of tropical cyclones’ destructive force – pumping sea water into and diffusing it in the wind at the bottom of such tropical cyclone in its eye wall.

Hurricane modification[edit]

NOAA published a page addressing various ideas in regards to tropical cyclone manipulation.

In 2007, «How to stop a hurricane»^[20] explored various ideas such as:

• Using lasers to discharge lightning in storms which are likely to become hurricanes
• Pouring liquid nitrogen onto the sea to deprive the hurricane of heat energy.
• Creating soot to absorb sunlight and change air temperature and create convection currents in the outer wall.

Researchers from NOAA’s hurricane research division addressed hurricane control based ideas.^[21]

Later ideas (2017) include laser inversion along the same lines as laser cooling (normally used at cryogenic temperatures) but intended to cool the top 1mm of water. If enough power were to be used then it may be enough, combined with computer modeling, to form an interference pattern able to inhibit a hurricane or significantly reduce its strength by depriving it of heat energy.^[22][23]

Other proposals for hurricane modification include the construction of a large array of offshore wind turbines along the USA’s east coast. Such turbines would have the dual purpose of generating plentiful energy whilst also reducing the power of oncoming hurricanes before they make landfall.^[24]

In the military[edit]

Operation Popeye was a highly classified operation run by the US military in 1967-1972.^[25] The purpose was to prolong monsoon in Southeast Asia. The overwhelming precipitation successfully disrupted the tactical logistics of the Vietnamese army. Operation Popeye is believed as the first successful practice of weather modification technology in warfare. After it was unveiled, weather modification in warfare was banned by the Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD).^[26]

In «Benign Weather Modification» published March 1997, Air Force Major Barry B. Coble superficially documents the existence of weather modification science where he traces the developments that have occurred, notably, in the hands of the Pentagon and CIA’s staunchest ideological enemies.

• The first scientifically controlled and monitored effort generally recognized by the meteorological community as constituting weather modification occurred in 1948. When Dr. Irving Langmuir first experimented with artificially seeding clouds to produce rain, his experiments showed positive results – sparking tremendous interest in the field nearly overnight.^[27]
• Many countries throughout the world practice weather modification. The Russians have long been interested in using weather modification as a way to control hail.^[28]

In the 1990s a directive from the chief of staff of the Air Force Ronald R. Fogleman was issued to examine the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States would require to remain the dominant air and space force in the future.

In law[edit]

US and Canada agreement[edit]

In 1975, the US and Canada entered into an agreement under the auspices of the United Nations for the exchange of information on weather modification activity.^[29]

1977 UN Environmental Modification Convention[edit]

Weather modification, particularly hostile weather warfare, was addressed by the «United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72, TIAS 9614 Convention^[30] on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.» The Convention was signed in Geneva on May 18, 1977; entered into force on October 5, 1978; ratified by U.S. President Jimmy Carter on December 13, 1979; and the U.S. ratification deposited at New York January 17, 1980.^[31]

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration[edit]

In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps records of weather modification projects on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, under authority of Public Law 92-205, 15 USC § 330B, enacted in 1971.^[32]

Proposed US legislation[edit]

2005 U.S. Senate Bill 517 and U.S. House Bill 2995
U.S. Senate Bill 517^[33] and U.S. House Bill 2995^[34] were two bills proposed in 2005 that would have expanded experimental weather modification, to establish a Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, and implemented a national weather modification policy. Neither were made into law.

2007 U.S. Senate Bill 1807 & U.S. House Bill 3445
Senate Bill 1807 and House Bill 3445, identical bills introduced July 17, 2007, proposed to establish a Weather Mitigation Advisory and Research Board to fund weather modification research^[35][36]

In religion and mythology[edit]

Magical and religious practices to control the weather are attested in a variety of cultures. In ancient India it is said that yajna or vedic rituals of chanting mantras and offering were performed by rishis to bring sudden bursts of rain fall in rain starved regions. Some Indigenous Americans, like some Europeans, had rituals which they believed could induce rain. The Finnish people, on the other hand, were believed by others to be able to control weather. As a result, Vikings refused to take Finns on their oceangoing raids. Remnants of this superstition lasted into the twentieth century, with some ship crews being reluctant to accept Finnish sailors.^{[citation needed]}

The early modern era saw people observe that during battles the firing of cannons and other firearms often initiated precipitation.

In Greek mythology, Iphigenia was offered as a human sacrifice to appease the wrath of the goddess Artemis, who had becalmed the Achaean fleet at Aulis at the beginning of the Trojan War. In Homer’s Odyssey, Aeolus, keeper of the winds, bestowed Odysseus and his crew with a gift of the four winds in a bag. However, the sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, looking for booty (money), and as a result were blown off course by the resulting gale.^[37] In ancient Rome, the lapis manalis was a sacred stone kept outside the walls of Rome in a temple of Mars. When Rome suffered from drought, the stone was dragged into the city.^[38]
The Berwick witches of Scotland were found guilty of using black magic to summon storms to murder King James VI of Scotland by seeking to sink the ship upon which he travelled.^[39] Scandinavian witches allegedly claimed to sell the wind in bags or magically confined into wooden staves; they sold the bags to seamen who could release them when becalmed.^[40] In various towns of Navarre, prayers petitioned Saint Peter to grant rain in time of drought. If the rain was not forthcoming, the statue of St Peter was removed from the church and tossed into a river.

In the Hebrew Bible, it is recorded that Elijah in the way of judgement, told King Ahab that neither dew nor rain would fall until Elijah called for it.^[41] It is further recorded that the ensuing drought lasted for a period of 3.5 years at which time Elijah called the rains to come again and the land was restored.^[42] The New Testament records Jesus Christ controlling a storm by speaking to it.^[43]

In Islam, Salat Al-Istisqa’ (Prayer for Rain) is taken as recourse when seeking rain from God during times of drought.^[44]

Conspiracy theories[edit]

Weather modification, along with climate engineering, is a recurring theme in conspiracy theories. The chemtrail conspiracy theory supposes that jet contrails are chemically altered to modify the weather and other phenomena. Other theories attempt to implicate scientific infrastructure such as the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program.^[45]

In literature[edit]

Frank Herbert’s Dune series features weather control technology, mainly in the planets of Arrakis, where the technology is used to assure for privacy from observation and in order to hide from the Imperium their true population and their plans to terraform the planet, and in Chapterhouse, where the Bene Gesserit intend to turn the planet into a desert.

The ability to manipulate the weather has become a common superpower in superhero fiction. A notable example is the Marvel Comics character Storm.

In the children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the fictional town of Chewandswallow has weather that rains down food instead of actual rain or snow until it got too extreme and made the civilians move to a different town. This was adapted into a movie where Flint Lockwood, the town’s outcast and scientist, has created a machine that converts water from the clouds into food.

See also[edit]

• Alberta Hail Project
• Beijing Weather Modification Office
• Chemtrail conspiracy theory
• Climate engineering
• Cloud seeding
• Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD)
• Extreme weather
• Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO)
• Global warming
• Land surface effects on climate
• Operation Popeye
• Project Cumulus
• Project Stormfury
• Water scarcity
• Weather forecasting
• Weather modification in North America

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Weather as a Force Multiplier:, Owning the Weather in 2025 – August 1996 – Department of Defense
• Operational Defenses through Weather Control in 2030
• Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Weather modification is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, which increases rain or snow, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water supply.^[1] Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or hurricanes, from occurring; or of provoking damaging weather against the enemy, as a tactic of military or economic warfare like Operation Popeye, where clouds were seeded to prolong the monsoon in Vietnam. Weather modification in warfare has been banned by the United Nations under the Environmental Modification Convention.

History[edit]

A popular belief in Northern Europe that shooting prevents hail caused many agricultural towns to fire cannons without ammunition. Veterans of the Seven Years’ War, Napoleonic wars, and the American Civil War reported that rain fell after every large battle. After their stories were collected in War and Weather, the United States Department of War in the late 19th century purchased $9,000 of gunpowder and explosives to detonate them in Texas, in hopes of condensing water vapor into rain. The results of the test, supervised by Robert Dyrenforth, were inconclusive.^[2]

Wilhelm Reich performed cloudbusting experiments in the 1950s, the results of which are controversial and was not widely accepted by mainstream science.

In November 1954 the Thailand Royal Rainmaking Project (Thai: โครงการฝนหลวง) was initiated by the King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He discovered that many areas faced the problem of drought. Over 82 percent of Thai agricultural land relied on rainfall. Thai farmers were not able to grow crops for lack of water. The royal rainmaking project debuted on 20 July 1969 at his behest, when the first rainmaking attempt was made at Khao Yai National Park. Dry ice flakes were scattered over clouds. Reportedly, some rainfall resulted. In 1971, the government established the Artificial Rainmaking Research and Development Project within the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives^{[3][circular reference]}

In January 2011, several newspapers and magazines, including the UK’s Sunday Times and Arabian Business, reported that scientists backed by the government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, had created over 50 artificial rainstorms between July and August 2010 near Al Ain, a city which lies close to the country’s border with Oman and is the second-largest city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The artificial rainstorms were said to have sometimes caused hail, gales and thunderstorms, baffling local residents.^[4]

The Chinese have told the world they can control the weather and that the Olympic Games there would not be hampered by bad weather conditions. They also have a government office called: Beijing Weather Modification Office, which is under the national weather control office.^[5][6]

Cloud seeding[edit]

Cloud seeding is a common technique to enhance precipitation. Cloud seeding entails spraying small particles, such as silver iodide, onto clouds to attempt to affect their development, usually with the goal of increasing precipitation. Cloud seeding only works to the extent that there is already water vapor present in the air. Critics generally contend that claimed successes occur in conditions which were going to lead to rain anyway. It is used in a variety of drought-prone countries, including the United States, China, India, and Russia. In China there is a perceived dependency upon it in dry regions, and there is a strong suspicion it is used to «wash the air» in dry and heavily polluted places, such as Beijing.^[7] In mountainous areas of the United States such as the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada,^[8] cloud seeding has been employed since the 1950s.

Project Cirrus was an attempt by General Electric to modify the weather which ran from 1947-1952. During that time, under the supervision of the United States Air Force, attempts were made to create snowstorms and seed hurricanes by using silver iodide. While General Electric reported positive results, they also acknowledged that their experiments were controversial.^[9]

The United Arab Emirates has been cloud seeding since the 2000s and aims to increase rainfall by 15-30% per year. The materials used are potassium chloride, sodium chloride, magnesium, and other materials.^[10][11]

Consequences[edit]

Societal[edit]

Not having adequate systems to handle weather modification may have disastrous consequences. «In the city of Jeddah in Western Saudi Arabia was damaged by floods in 2009 that reportedly killed more than 100 people; igniting questions of why the country doesn’t have effective drainage systems in place.»^[11]

Human[edit]

The U.S. National Library of Medicine notes that the silver iodide has no known “ill effects” on people, although people’s “hands may have remained yellowed for weeks” after being exposed to it.^[12]

Storm prevention[edit]

Project Stormfury was an attempt to weaken tropical cyclones by flying aircraft into storms and seeding the eyewall with silver iodide. The project was run by the United States Government from 1962 to 1983. A similar project using soot was run in 1958, with inconclusive results.^[13] Various methods have been proposed to reduce the harmful effects of hurricanes. Moshe Alamaro of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[14] proposed using barges with upward-pointing jet engines to trigger smaller storms to disrupt the progress of an incoming hurricane; critics doubt the jets would be powerful enough to make any noticeable difference.^[13]

Alexandre Chorin of the University of California, Berkeley, proposed dropping large amounts of environmentally friendly oils on the sea surface to prevent droplet formation.^[15] Experiments by Kerry Emanuel^[16] of MIT in 2002 suggested that hurricane-force winds would disrupt the oil slick, making it ineffective.^[13] Other scientists disputed the factual basis of the theoretical mechanism assumed by this approach.^[15]

The Florida company Dyn-O-Mat and its CEO, Peter Cordani, proposed the use of a patented product it developed, called Dyn-O-Gel, to reduce the strength of hurricanes. The substance is a polymer in powder form (a polyacrylic acid derivative) which reportedly has the ability to absorb 1,500 times its own weight in water. The theory is that the polymer is dropped into clouds to remove their moisture and force the storm to use more energy to move the heavier water drops, thus helping to dissipate the storm. When the gel reaches the ocean surface, it is reportedly dissolved. Peter Cordani teamed up with Mark Daniels and Victor Miller, the owners of a government contracting aviation firm AeroGroup which operated ex-military aircraft commercially. Using a high altitude B-57 Bomber, AeroGroup tested the substance dropping 9,000 pounds from the B-57 aircraft’s large bomb bay dispersing it into a large thunderstorm cell just off the east coast of Florida. The tests were documented on film and made international news showing the storms were successfully removed on monitored Doppler radar. In 2003, the program was shut down because of political pressure through NOAA.^[17] Numerical simulations performed by NOAA showed however that it would not be a practical solution for large systems like a tropical cyclone.^[18]

Hail cannons have been used by some farmers since the 19th century in an attempt to ward off hail, but there is no reliable scientific evidence to confirm their effectiveness. Another new anti-hurricane technology^[19] is a method for the reduction of tropical cyclones’ destructive force – pumping sea water into and diffusing it in the wind at the bottom of such tropical cyclone in its eye wall.

Hurricane modification[edit]

NOAA published a page addressing various ideas in regards to tropical cyclone manipulation.

In 2007, «How to stop a hurricane»^[20] explored various ideas such as:

• Using lasers to discharge lightning in storms which are likely to become hurricanes
• Pouring liquid nitrogen onto the sea to deprive the hurricane of heat energy.
• Creating soot to absorb sunlight and change air temperature and create convection currents in the outer wall.

Researchers from NOAA’s hurricane research division addressed hurricane control based ideas.^[21]

Later ideas (2017) include laser inversion along the same lines as laser cooling (normally used at cryogenic temperatures) but intended to cool the top 1mm of water. If enough power were to be used then it may be enough, combined with computer modeling, to form an interference pattern able to inhibit a hurricane or significantly reduce its strength by depriving it of heat energy.^[22][23]

Other proposals for hurricane modification include the construction of a large array of offshore wind turbines along the USA’s east coast. Such turbines would have the dual purpose of generating plentiful energy whilst also reducing the power of oncoming hurricanes before they make landfall.^[24]

In the military[edit]

Operation Popeye was a highly classified operation run by the US military in 1967-1972.^[25] The purpose was to prolong monsoon in Southeast Asia. The overwhelming precipitation successfully disrupted the tactical logistics of the Vietnamese army. Operation Popeye is believed as the first successful practice of weather modification technology in warfare. After it was unveiled, weather modification in warfare was banned by the Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD).^[26]

In «Benign Weather Modification» published March 1997, Air Force Major Barry B. Coble superficially documents the existence of weather modification science where he traces the developments that have occurred, notably, in the hands of the Pentagon and CIA’s staunchest ideological enemies.

• The first scientifically controlled and monitored effort generally recognized by the meteorological community as constituting weather modification occurred in 1948. When Dr. Irving Langmuir first experimented with artificially seeding clouds to produce rain, his experiments showed positive results – sparking tremendous interest in the field nearly overnight.^[27]
• Many countries throughout the world practice weather modification. The Russians have long been interested in using weather modification as a way to control hail.^[28]

In the 1990s a directive from the chief of staff of the Air Force Ronald R. Fogleman was issued to examine the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States would require to remain the dominant air and space force in the future.

In law[edit]

US and Canada agreement[edit]

In 1975, the US and Canada entered into an agreement under the auspices of the United Nations for the exchange of information on weather modification activity.^[29]

1977 UN Environmental Modification Convention[edit]

Weather modification, particularly hostile weather warfare, was addressed by the «United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72, TIAS 9614 Convention^[30] on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.» The Convention was signed in Geneva on May 18, 1977; entered into force on October 5, 1978; ratified by U.S. President Jimmy Carter on December 13, 1979; and the U.S. ratification deposited at New York January 17, 1980.^[31]

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration[edit]

In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps records of weather modification projects on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, under authority of Public Law 92-205, 15 USC § 330B, enacted in 1971.^[32]

Proposed US legislation[edit]

2005 U.S. Senate Bill 517 and U.S. House Bill 2995
U.S. Senate Bill 517^[33] and U.S. House Bill 2995^[34] were two bills proposed in 2005 that would have expanded experimental weather modification, to establish a Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, and implemented a national weather modification policy. Neither were made into law.

2007 U.S. Senate Bill 1807 & U.S. House Bill 3445
Senate Bill 1807 and House Bill 3445, identical bills introduced July 17, 2007, proposed to establish a Weather Mitigation Advisory and Research Board to fund weather modification research^[35][36]

In religion and mythology[edit]

Magical and religious practices to control the weather are attested in a variety of cultures. In ancient India it is said that yajna or vedic rituals of chanting mantras and offering were performed by rishis to bring sudden bursts of rain fall in rain starved regions. Some Indigenous Americans, like some Europeans, had rituals which they believed could induce rain. The Finnish people, on the other hand, were believed by others to be able to control weather. As a result, Vikings refused to take Finns on their oceangoing raids. Remnants of this superstition lasted into the twentieth century, with some ship crews being reluctant to accept Finnish sailors.^{[citation needed]}

The early modern era saw people observe that during battles the firing of cannons and other firearms often initiated precipitation.

In Greek mythology, Iphigenia was offered as a human sacrifice to appease the wrath of the goddess Artemis, who had becalmed the Achaean fleet at Aulis at the beginning of the Trojan War. In Homer’s Odyssey, Aeolus, keeper of the winds, bestowed Odysseus and his crew with a gift of the four winds in a bag. However, the sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, looking for booty (money), and as a result were blown off course by the resulting gale.^[37] In ancient Rome, the lapis manalis was a sacred stone kept outside the walls of Rome in a temple of Mars. When Rome suffered from drought, the stone was dragged into the city.^[38]
The Berwick witches of Scotland were found guilty of using black magic to summon storms to murder King James VI of Scotland by seeking to sink the ship upon which he travelled.^[39] Scandinavian witches allegedly claimed to sell the wind in bags or magically confined into wooden staves; they sold the bags to seamen who could release them when becalmed.^[40] In various towns of Navarre, prayers petitioned Saint Peter to grant rain in time of drought. If the rain was not forthcoming, the statue of St Peter was removed from the church and tossed into a river.

In the Hebrew Bible, it is recorded that Elijah in the way of judgement, told King Ahab that neither dew nor rain would fall until Elijah called for it.^[41] It is further recorded that the ensuing drought lasted for a period of 3.5 years at which time Elijah called the rains to come again and the land was restored.^[42] The New Testament records Jesus Christ controlling a storm by speaking to it.^[43]

In Islam, Salat Al-Istisqa’ (Prayer for Rain) is taken as recourse when seeking rain from God during times of drought.^[44]

Conspiracy theories[edit]

Weather modification, along with climate engineering, is a recurring theme in conspiracy theories. The chemtrail conspiracy theory supposes that jet contrails are chemically altered to modify the weather and other phenomena. Other theories attempt to implicate scientific infrastructure such as the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program.^[45]

In literature[edit]

Frank Herbert’s Dune series features weather control technology, mainly in the planets of Arrakis, where the technology is used to assure for privacy from observation and in order to hide from the Imperium their true population and their plans to terraform the planet, and in Chapterhouse, where the Bene Gesserit intend to turn the planet into a desert.

The ability to manipulate the weather has become a common superpower in superhero fiction. A notable example is the Marvel Comics character Storm.

In the children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the fictional town of Chewandswallow has weather that rains down food instead of actual rain or snow until it got too extreme and made the civilians move to a different town. This was adapted into a movie where Flint Lockwood, the town’s outcast and scientist, has created a machine that converts water from the clouds into food.

See also[edit]

• Alberta Hail Project
• Beijing Weather Modification Office
• Chemtrail conspiracy theory
• Climate engineering
• Cloud seeding
• Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD)
• Extreme weather
• Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO)
• Global warming
• Land surface effects on climate
• Operation Popeye
• Project Cumulus
• Project Stormfury
• Water scarcity
• Weather forecasting
• Weather modification in North America

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Weather as a Force Multiplier:, Owning the Weather in 2025 – August 1996 – Department of Defense
• Operational Defenses through Weather Control in 2030
• Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control

На самом деле изменять погоду легче, чем вы думаете! Это можно запросто сделать с помощью правильного намерения. Проверьте, на что способны ваши мысли!

Метод, изложенный в этой статье, основан на реальном опыте нашего читателя!

Он позволяет обычному человеку с помощью концентрации достичь умения управлять погодой.

Только представьте, как вы с помощью силы мысли разгоняете облака на глазах у изумленных зрителей. Но это лишь малая толика ваших возможностей!

Известно, что потенциал человека развит очень слабо. Ученые подсчитали, что люди используют возможности своего мозга не более, чем на 3 процента.

Предчувствие или закономерность?

Считается, что люди могут предчувствовать то, что произойдет в будущем. Например, на улице вас посещает ощущение, что за следующим поворотом вы встретите старого знакомого. И это оказывается правдой!

Но все может быть еще интереснее…

«Скажите, вы предчувствуете будущие события, или своими мыслями их создаете?»

Наше намерение (сфокусированное желание) обладает силой формировать жизненные события. Оно может влиять на все. Даже на погоду!

Как изменять погоду и растворять облака?

1. Для начала практик настраивается на работу. Обычно разум человека очень недисциплинирован: его посещают разные мысли, на которые он «послушно» реагирует. Для этой практики нужно собрать свою волю «в кулак».

«Сейчас я буду разгонять облака!» — эта мысль должна вытеснить другие! Только так можно научиться изменять погоду.

2. Затем человек выбирает «цель» — облако, с которым он будет работать.

Поскольку концентрироваться нужно будет на первом этапе не менее 10 минут, то для удобства можно сесть или лечь так, чтобы не затекала шея во время сосредоточения на облаке.

3. Выбрав облако, практикующий полностью фокусирует на нем свое внимание и начинает представлять, что этого облака нет, что вместо него появилось чистое голубое небо. Желательно сопровождать эту работу воображением: представлять, как облако «расщепляется» на множество мелких облачков, как они тоже исчезают, оставляя только чистое небо.

4. Время, которое пройдет до полного исчезновения облака, зависит от способностей конкретного человека к концентрации.

Например, на первом этапе можно потратить на растворение маленького облака 10 минут. С развитием навыка сила намерения увеличивается, и облака начинают растворяться за 3-4 минуты.

Если говорить о дождевом облаке, то с развитой концентрацией¹ его можно растворить за 7 минут

Представьте, что после некоторой тренировки можно научиться изменять погоду всего за 7 минут! И вместо дождя будет солнце!

Внимание!

Эта техника тратит внутреннюю энергию. Если долго разгонять сильный ливень и грозовые тучи, можно потратить много энергии, и весь оставшийся день быть обессилевшим. Но существуют особые практики, которые помогут наполниться энергией. Их вы можете найти здесь >>>

Важность постоянной практики!

На самом деле эта техника очень проста, к ней нужно подходить без сомнений. Результат появится с первого раза – спустя несколько минут концентрации вы увидите, что «обработанное» облако начнет растворяться!

Рекомендуется начинать с маленьких облаков, и по мере практики усложнять задачу. Чтобы остановить ливень, нужно обладать очень развитой силой намерения. Но это достижимо!

Говоря о важности постоянной тренировки для появления результата, можно привести цитату автора данной техники: «Я рассказал друзьям, и мы начали растворять облака вместе. Не у всех получалось: им хотелось все сделать за 3 минуты, как это делал я, но для этого надо было тренироваться».

Вадим Уваров

Примечания и тематические статьи для более глубокого понимания материала

¹ Концентрация внимания — удержание информации о каком-либо объекте в кратковременной памяти (Википедия). Лучшие способы развить концентрацию внимания >>>