Drought in China

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/china.drought.reut/index.html

First of all, wtf is "seeding" a cloud? :confused:

Second of all, Finland would be glad to assist China if needed.

Reply 1

Nightowl

12

China has no idea what China means, but although we thank Finland for their kind offer of assistance we can handle the drought by ourselves :smile:

Reply 2

Agent Smith

11

"Seeding" clouds is a method that only recently moved out of the realms of science fiction and became reality, whereby planes are rigged up to resemble crop dusters and fly over rain-bearing clouds; they then drop some kind of chemical into them which somehow makes them shed their rain.

Reply 3

Craghyrax

17

Nightowl

China has no idea what China means, but although we thank Finland for their kind offer of assistance we can handle the drought by ourselves :smile:

Germany loses interest and walks off.

Reply 4

bikerx23

1

Agent Smith

"Seeding" clouds is a method that only recently moved out of the realms of science fiction and became reality, whereby planes are rigged up to resemble crop dusters and fly over rain-bearing clouds; they then drop some kind of chemical into them which somehow makes them shed their rain.

yep - they act as condensation nuclei, causing droplets to form from the vapour and hence encouraging rain.

Reply 5

brimstone

7

Craghyrax

Germany loses interest and walks off.

France reiterates Germany's comment.
:smile:

Reply 6

Apollo

OP

11

Agent Smith

"Seeding" clouds is a method that only recently moved out of the realms of science fiction and became reality, whereby planes are rigged up to resemble crop dusters and fly over rain-bearing clouds; they then drop some kind of chemical into them which somehow makes them shed their rain.

That's awesome. I wonder why they don't do it more often... (Is this the part where you detail the horrific side effects like growing an arm out of your face?)

Reply 7

Knogle

16

Apollo

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/china.drought.reut/index.html

First of all, wtf is "seeding" a cloud? :confused:

Second of all, Finland would be glad to assist China if needed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding

it's a technique used extensively by governments these days to combat forest fires. It can be effective if the fires are not rampant in subterranean peatland or marshy areas.