December 21, 2018
The Energy Ministry is planning to resume cloud seeding in 10 provinces in an effort to boost the volume of rainfall. Iran is now in its 11th straight year of drought.
The head of the National Cloud Seeding Research Center of Iran, Farid Golkar, said planes, drones and ground-based generators would be used with the help of the Pasdar Air Force, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.
Airplanes will used over Yazd, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh va Boyer-Ahmad, Esfahan, Khuzestan, Kerman and Fars provinces.
“Drones will be flown for cloud seeding in South Khorasan, East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan provinces,” Golkar said. With proper funding, the project will include ground-based generators in Kermanshah.
For release by aircraft, silver iodide flares are ignited and dispersed as an aircraft or drone flies through a cloud. When released by ground devices, the fine particles are carried upwards by air currents after release.
When water vapor or droplets attach to the silver iodide crystals, it can increase cloud size and the duration of storms.
Cloud seeding projects in Iran were begun in 2008, though many question whether the effort has done any good.
In 2003, the “National Research Council (United States)” US National Research Council (NRC) released a report stating, “Science is unable to say with assurance which, if any, seeding techniques produce positive effects. In the 55 years following the first cloud-seeding demonstrations, substantial progress has been made in understanding the natural processes that account for our daily weather. Yet scientifically acceptable proof for significant seeding effects has not been achieved.”