The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s (IITM), two-month pilot project in cloud seeding has concluded successfully on the eve of the institute’s 49th foundation day on Wednesday.
Speaking to DNA on Tuesday, IITM’s Caipeex (cloud aerosol interaction and precipitation enhancement experiment) programme manager, JR Kulkarni, said the project began on September 4 and concluded on November 7.
The Caipeex project saw a multinational team comprising 15 IITM scientists, a scientist each from Israel, South Africa and the US operate a 3-band Doppler radar and an S-band radar. A team of three specialist pilots, two from South Africa and one from the US, piloted an Ayres Turbo Thrush cloud seeding aircraft and an Aerocommander 690 research aircraft.
Kulkarni said, “We operated20 flights from the Begumpet airfield in Hyderabad and carried out the cloud seeding exercise in the rainshadow regions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The cloud seeding showed a perceptible change in cloud drop size, resulting in rain.”
According to Caipeex deputy programme manager, RS Maheshkumar, a combination of salt and hygroscopic flares (combination of magnesium, potassium chlorate and sodium chloride) were fired at the base of the clouds.
“The two aircraft flew at a vertical distance of 1,500 feet from each other. The radars guided the aircraft to the suitable clouds. The seeder aircraft fired the salt and flares at the base of the clouds and moved away. The research aircraft then circled the same cloud to measure the impact of the seeding,” he said.
Kulkarni said the ground radars established that the cloud seeding had resulted in the formation of larger cloud drops, which increased the rainfall. He admitted that the ground level measurement of actual rainfall could not be made because high density rain gauges were not available.
“We have set the pace for 2011: we will work for three months to statistically establish the level of precipitation caused due to cloud seeding,” he said.
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