China has completed its biggest rainmaking project called the “Sky River”. The project has been completed to overcome the problem of water shortage and to bring extra rainfall in the area. The artificial rain will be conducted over the world’s largest plateau, Tibet. The researchers who are involved in the project said that the cloud-seeding project will mark an increased rain in the area by up to 10 billion cubic meters per year.
Thousands of fuel burning chambers have been installed across the plateau to produce a cloud-seeding agent called silver Iodide. More than 500 burners have also been deployed on the alpine slopes in Tibet, Xinjiang and other areas. The cloud-seeding process involves cloud-seeding chemicals like silver iodide, potassium iodide which are introduced in the clouds using remote-controlled rockets or other dispersion devices to initiate artificial rain. The plan of having an artificial rain is an extension of the project called Tianhe or ‘Sky River’. It was developed by researchers in 2016 to bring extra rain to an area of 1.6 million square kilometers.
Lei Fanpei, the president of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said, “It will make an important contribution not only to China’s development and world prosperity, but also the well being of the entire human race.” China is also known to manipulate rainfall for other purposes like countering summer heat or clearing the skies for Beijing Olympics 2008. Cloud-seeding is a process on which scientists have been trying to complete successfully for many years now. China has worked on this process more than any other country in the world. The completion date of the project is still not disclosed. Fingers crossed!
