From The Bangkok post Wed 31.7.02 "Samui rain-making bid hampered by poor weather conditions" Efforts to make artificial rain above Koh Samui are being held back by poor weather. Groundwater is running scarce on the island, which is affecting tapwater supplies. Deputy Surat Thani governor Wut Sitthisurat on Monday met waterworks district 4 director Chusri Chalongchaiyasith and Sinchai Phungtambon from the Agriculture Ministry's artificial rain-making team, to see what they could do. Mrs Chusri said Hin Lart waterfall, the island's only remaining source of water, was running low. The island's ability to make tap water had fallen to only 40 cubic metres an hour, from 250 cubic metres an hour on July 18. Extra rain was urgently needed above the waterfall and Phru Na Muang creek to ease the shortage. Mr Sinchai said the rain-making team ran 47 flights using more than 50 tonnes of chemicals in the past 16 days, but on only eight days was the climate ideal. 'We are waiting for the weather to improve. Winds have weakened and clouds have gathered in the target areas in the past two days, which is good news. On Aug 7, we will survey those areas to make rain,'' he said. Some 3,000 families on Koh Samui, or about a third of the residents, have been hit by the shortage. *end of article* Please tell me this is a serious report. 50 tonnes of chemicals? To make water? How exactly? Not that it worked anyway. Just another day in Thailand Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Clouds can be seeded using chemicals which encourage water vapor to collect around the seeds. Should it become effective then the seeds will continue to attract moisture until they fall from the sky in the form of rain. Without sufficent moisture present in the clouds this will not work; this is the most likely method used. It requires that the material be used over a wide area to be effective. I have read where there is a new material that is capable of absorbing around 100 times it's weight in moisture. It was thought that it might allow hurricane control as it might take the steam out of the storm. It is posted somewhere within the realms of sciforms, around last year at this time.
Thanks Wet, as usual Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! , and good idea guru, though good ideas don't seem to last long here Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (note to self: find a question Wet CAN'T answer...)
