Dispersal of clouds - the establishment of good weather. The principle of cloud acceleration, consequences. Technology for creating favorable weather (“cloud dispersal”). Help How to disperse rain

They were undertaken by meteorological specialists back in Soviet times. Back in the 1970s, special Tu-16 Cyclone jet aircraft, created on the basis of the Tu-16 strategic bomber, were used for this purpose. The Russian cloud acceleration service is considered one of the best in the world.

The technology for creating favorable weather conditions was developed in 1990 by specialists of the State Committee for Hydrometeorology and Natural Environment Control (Goskomhydromet), and since 1995, after the first large-scale use during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, it began to be used quite widely.

The head of the laboratory of atmospheric air hygiene at the Research Institute of Human Ecology and Environmental Hygiene of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Migmar Pinigin, said that liquid nitrogen is a gas of the same name concentrated at low temperatures, the content of which in the atmosphere is about 78%. According to him, “the question of the harmfulness of this reagent disappears by itself.” As for granular carbon dioxide, its formula - CO2 - coincides with the formula of carbon dioxide, also present in the atmosphere. The head of the climate program of the World Wildlife Fund, Alexey Kokorin, assured that even the spraying of cement powder does not threaten people: “When clearing clouds, we are talking about minimal doses.”

The reagent exists in the atmosphere for less than a day. After entering the cloud, it is washed out of it along with precipitation, meteorologists are sure.

According to Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Alexander Drobyshevsky, “the use of reagents, in terms of pollution, does not affect the state of the earth’s surface in any way. The number of reagent particles falling per unit area of ​​the earth is negligible, it is hundreds of times less than the natural level of dust deposits.”

At the same time, this technique also has opponents. Thus, ecologists from the public organization Ecodefense argue that there is a certain relationship between the acceleration of clouds and heavy rains falling in the following days. According to the head of the organization, Vladimir Slivyak, “modern science is not yet able to talk about the consequences of such an intervention, and they can be very different.” In this regard, the position of environmentalists is clear: “Such actions must be stopped.” The answer from meteorologists is no less clear. According to a statement by Valery Stasenko, head of the department for monitoring geophysical processes, active impacts and state supervision of Roshydromet, “the conclusions of ecologists that rainy weather is a consequence of our activities are nothing more than speculation. To make such conclusions, it is necessary to measure the level of aerosol in the atmosphere, its concentration, establish the type of aerosol. Without this data, such statements are unfounded."

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

In recent years, good, sunny weather certainly accompanies all major capital holidays: Victory Day, Independence Day, City Day. At the same time, we often hear about special planes that “disperse” clouds in the sky over Moscow so that rain does not interfere with VIP guests and public festivities. But what are the consequences of such interference in the environment?

Roshydromet specialists claim that the reagents used to disperse clouds do not harm the ecology of the capital. “Depending on the predicted intensity of the upcoming precipitation, silver iodide, dry ice and even fine cement are used. All these reagents are environmentally friendly materials that do not harm the city’s atmosphere,” experts officially state.

The first attempts to make good weather were made in the Soviet Union, and today the Russian service for clearing clouds is considered the best in the world. Other countries are just taking our experience into account.

The technique for creating favorable weather conditions was developed by Roshydromet specialists in 1990 and began to be widely used in 1995. For the first time it was truly tested at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Victory. Subsequently, the clouds were dispersed during the opening and closing period of the World Youth Games in 1998, during the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow.

Meteorologists call the process of cloud dispersal “seeding.” Dry ice is sprayed against the stratus forms of the lower cloud layer from a height of several thousand meters, and liquid nitrogen is sprayed against the nimbostratus clouds. The most powerful rain clouds are bombarded with silver iodide, which is filled with weather cartridges. Once in the clouds, the reagent particles concentrate moisture around themselves, “pulling” water from the clouds. As a result, heavy rain begins almost immediately over the area where dry ice or silver iodide is sprayed. On the way to Moscow, the clouds will have already used up all their “ammunition” and dissipated.

Dispersal tactics are developed in the last days before the holidays. Early in the morning, aerial reconnaissance clarifies the situation, after which planes with reagents on board take off from one of the Moscow region (usually military) airfields. The cost of such flights can reach several million rubles, depending on the flight time and expensive fuel consumption. According to rough estimates, one event to create good weather costs the city treasury a total of 2.5 million dollars.

Roshydromet specialists and city leaders have been convinced of the effectiveness of the dispersal more than once. So, several years ago, on City Day, Moscow found itself under the threat of heavy clouds and a high-altitude cyclone, the service said. It is almost impossible to completely cope with such weather conditions. And yet, weather forecasters in tandem with pilots managed to reduce the intensity of precipitation that hit the capital by 3 times.

Science has long known the technology for combating rain clouds, but in practice it is used only in Russia. The spraying technology itself is quite simple and does not require any special costs. Let’s say that a cloud 5 kilometers long requires only 15 grams of reagent.

In our country, the monopoly on “acceleration” of clouds belongs to the active influence department of Roshydromet, and although the technology itself is already quite well developed, it continues to surprise foreigners. In particular, Japanese Prime Minister Juninchiro Koizumi, who was invited to celebrate one of the Victory Days on May 9, was sure until the very last moment that the dispersal of clouds over Moscow was nothing more than a joke. He was pleasantly surprised that during the festive parade the sun was shining over Red Square (contrary to the preliminary forecasts of weather forecasters). The distinguished guest was very pleased with the achievements of Russian science in this area.

But there is no point in envying the residents of the capital, whose skies can always be “cleared.” The head of the public environmental organization Ecodefense, Vladimir Slivyak, is sure: “The artificial removal of natural precipitation over Moscow often leads to the fact that it can rain in buckets for a very long time.” This happens when air humidity changes sharply, and the direction of movement of air fronts also changes. This picture was observed after the clouds cleared over Moscow in honor of Russian Independence Day - June 12, 2005.

“There is a relationship between the acceleration of clouds and heavy rains,” says Vladimir Slivyak. – “You cannot disturb the natural balance. In addition, modern science is not yet able to talk about the long-term consequences of such an intervention, and they can be very different. And therefore our position is: such actions must be stopped.”

According to meteorologists themselves, all the talk about the negative aftereffects of reagents has no basis. Valery Stasenko, head of the active impacts department of Roshydromet, says: “The conclusions of ecologists regarding the fact that rainy weather is a consequence of our activities are nothing more than speculation... We know the periods of existence of clouds, we know the patterns of precipitation and formation.” The reagent exists in the atmosphere for less than a day. After entering the cloud, it is washed out of it along with precipitation, meteorologists are sure.

However, after each holiday, during which the weather was dry and warm, there are several days during which there is unusually heavy rain. Still, Nature does not like it when people interfere in its affairs...

Based on materials from the Russian press and SpaceNews.ru

In recent years, good, sunny weather has certainly accompanied all major capital holidays. Now you can “order” the weather. Clouds easily disperse and unfavorable weather conditions do not spoil the holiday. Today, May 8, aviation began shaping the weather over Moscow: At the Ramenskoye and Chkalovsky airfields near Moscow, specialists from the Russian Air Force and the Roshydromet Atmospheric Technologies Agency began loading aircraft with reagents.

The first attempts to make good weather were made in the Soviet Union, and today the Russian service for clearing clouds is considered the best in the world. Other countries are just taking our experience into account.

The technique of creating favorable weather conditions began to be widely used in 1995. Early in the morning, aerial reconnaissance clarifies the situation, and then planes take off from one of the airfields near Moscow. Dry ice is sprayed against the stratus forms of the lower cloud layer from a height of several thousand meters, and liquid nitrogen is sprayed against the nimbostratus clouds. The most powerful rain clouds are bombarded with silver iodide, which is filled with weather cartridges. Once in the clouds, the reagent particles concentrate moisture around themselves, “pulling” water from the clouds. As a result, heavy rain begins almost immediately over the area where dry ice or silver iodide is sprayed. On the way to Moscow the clouds clear.

The cost of such flights can reach several million rubles. According to rough estimates, one event to create good weather costs the city treasury a total of 2.5 million dollars.

Nevertheless, Muscovites will apparently celebrate Victory Day under umbrellas: although weather forecasters promise warm weather, they do not rule out rain and, in some places, thunderstorms. “Short-term, local rains are expected in the capital on May 9 in the afternoon; the dispersion of clouds will not significantly affect the air temperature,” said Dmitry Kiktev, deputy director for science of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia.

The head of the public environmental organization Ecodefense, Vladimir Slivyak, is confident that “the artificial removal of natural precipitation over Moscow often leads to the fact that rain can pour in buckets for a very long time.” This happens when air humidity changes sharply, and the direction of movement of air fronts also changes. This picture was observed after the clouds cleared over Moscow in honor of Russian Independence Day - June 12, 2005.

According to meteorologists themselves, all the talk about the negative aftereffects of reagents has no basis. Valery Stasenko, head of the active influence department of Roshydromet, says: “The conclusions of ecologists regarding the fact that rainy weather is a consequence of our activities are nothing more than speculation. We know the periods of existence of clouds, we know the patterns of precipitation and formation.”

The reagent exists in the atmosphere for less than a day. After entering the cloud, it is washed out of it along with precipitation, meteorologists are sure.

Aleksey Kokorin, climate program coordinator for the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund, also said that dispersing clouds using reagents does not threaten the environment. “Dispersing clouds with the help of reagents can affect the weather, but this is a local effect - the rain that will fall on Moscow after using reagents will occur somewhere in the region. But for the climate as a whole, flora and fauna there is nothing terrible,” he said Kokorin.

Does everyone know how the clouds clear over Moscow?

We are accustomed to the fact that on major holidays, Moscow parades and festivities are not marred by bad weather. The technology for local weather improvement is well developed today, although the history of this trend goes back centuries.

Everything depends on the weather!
Any news includes a weather forecast, too much depends on it. Our ancestors prayed for rain and tried to make the clouds rain by ringing bells. With the advent of artillery, they began to shoot at clouds carrying hail in order to save the harvest. But the success of these attempts was unpredictable: sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Modern science has learned to control the weather, at least locally. Many people are interested in the question of how they disperse the clouds over Moscow and whether they actually do it? Is it possible to disperse clouds in any other place? Isn't this harmful? Doesn't this deteriorate the climate in neighboring areas?

Ahead of the entire planet!
Russian researchers have learned to control the weather better than others. Foreign countries are only adopting domestic experience. The issue of weather control was closely addressed in the Soviet Union in the 40-50s of the last century. At first, the dispersal of clouds was purely utilitarian in nature: in the spirit of that time, they wanted to make the sky pour over agricultural land. The work went well, and weather control ceased to be a utopia. The accumulated knowledge was useful later in the days of the Chernobyl disaster. The goal of the scientists was to save the Dnieper from radioactive contamination. The attempt was successful. If it were not for the efforts of scientists and military personnel, the size of the disaster would have been much greater.
How are the clouds clearing over Moscow today? In general, the same as 60 years ago.

Cloud acceleration technology.
The first step is to determine how far the rain clouds are from the desired location. An accurate forecast is needed 48 hours before the expected time, for example, before the parade. Then the composition and characteristics of the clouds are studied: each of them requires its own reagent. The meaning of the technology is that a reagent is placed in the center of the cloud, onto which moisture sticks. When the amount of concentrated moisture becomes critical, it begins to rain. The cloud is shed before the place where the cloud was directed along the air currents.

The following substances are used as reagents: dry ice (carbon dioxide) in granules; silver iodide; a liquid nitrogen; cement.

How do clouds clear over Moscow?
To do this, clouds are processed at a distance of 50 or 100 km from the place where rain is not needed. Dry ice is used for stratus clouds that are closest to the ground. This composition is poured onto the clouds at an altitude of several thousand meters. Special navigation is applied and processed clouds are marked to prevent re-exposure. The nimbostratus clouds located above receive liquid nitrogen, or rather crystals of its vapor. Special large-capacity Dewar flasks are installed on airplanes, and liquid nitrogen is sprayed over the cloud. This is how clouds are dispersed in Moscow using the well-known chemistry.

Silver iodide is placed in special weather cartridges and fired at high rain clouds. These dense clouds consist of ice crystals and their lifetime does not exceed 4 hours. The chemical structure of silver iodide is very similar to ice crystals. Once caught in a rain cloud, pockets of condensation quickly form around it, and rain soon begins to fall. At the same time, there may be a thunderstorm or even hail, this is the property of these clouds.
However, this is an incomplete answer to the question of how the clouds clear over Moscow. Sometimes dry cement is used. The cement package (standard paper bag) is attached to a hook. The impact of the air flow gradually breaks the paper, and the cement is gradually blown out. It combines with water and drops fall to the ground. Cement is used to treat rising air currents to stop cloud formation.

Is it harmful to disperse clouds?
This issue is constantly discussed by residents of regions bordering the Moscow region, especially the Smolensk region. The logic is simple: just as the clouds disperse over Moscow on May 9, it rains endlessly. It would seem that the reagents cannot do much harm; these substances have been well studied for a long time. However, to disperse clouds, up to 50 tons of reagents are used at a time. To date, there are no studies that could prove or disprove the harm caused to nature. Environmentalists claim that the chronology of precipitation is being disrupted, and that’s all.

There have even been lawsuits for moral damages, but not a single claim has been satisfied yet. The dissatisfaction of residents of the Moscow region can be explained very simply: they feel like unequal citizens. Residents of cities and towns surrounding Moscow are forced to spend all more or less significant holidays with rain, even if there was no precipitation according to the forecast. At the same time, people recognize that clearing clouds is simply necessary in the event of a threat to crops or housing, when a hurricane or hail is expected. A large number of residents are disgusted by the way the clouds are dispersed in Moscow on holidays, because their same holiday turns out to be completely ruined.

Many people are interested in clearing clouds. And indeed, a very interesting topic. How are they dispersed? How much money does it cost? In general, it is worth noting that you really have to spend a lot. This pleasure is now very expensive. Thus, one of the last holidays cost the Russian government 430 thousand rubles. This is a very large amount. Many people consider this a waste of money. But it's still interesting. How to disperse clouds?

On what holidays do the clouds disperse?

Let's figure it out: What holidays do they do this for? And what disperses rain clouds? In general, the main dates are: May 9, July 12 and the first Saturday of September. This is a plane taking off at four o'clock in the morning. His goal is very simple - to reconnoiter the current situation. If there is a threat of rain, planes with reagents take off. There are also special generators of fine particles. Cylinders with reagents are connected to them. They then dissipate under high pressure. As a result, precipitation occurs.

When did the clouds begin to disperse?

The first attempts began a short time after the Second World War. In this area, all the advanced developments went to the Americans. They proposed using two substances - and for these purposes. In the Soviet Union they started doing this somewhere in the early 60s. That is quite late.

There is nothing complicated in the process. But this process is called a little differently. Still, this is not the dispersal of clouds. In fact, the clouds rain and simply disappear. To disperse clouds in the classical sense of the term, you need to be able to create a very strong wind. Unfortunately, we have not yet learned how to do this. By the way, that would be nice. After all, you can save a lot of money in this case. But so far, completely different methods for accelerating clouds are being used.

They can also do this using special self-expanding containers. The technology is cheaper, but there is a risk that they will not open on their own and fall to the ground. And they are far from easy. Consequently, this can even lead to injuries. Although these arguments are not so critical due to the fact that clouds often have to be dispersed over uninhabited areas of the country. But if you have to do this over some village, then you need to be more careful.

When did the ability to disperse clouds come in handy in practice?

The ability to disperse clouds in practice was needed after the Chernobyl disaster. The rains were very dangerous at that time. Therefore, it was necessary to be able to create precipitation directly in the exclusion zone and under no circumstances allow it in other parts of the planet. It was a very responsible task. That's when there was a really practical use for cloud dispersal. But now there’s not much point, to be honest. Although some people may think differently. Still, good weather is the key to a great mood.

What reagents are used?

Now let’s look in more detail at how to disperse clouds. What reagents are used to bring this task to life?

1. A liquid nitrogen.
2. Dry ice.
3. Granular carbon dioxide.
4. Special cement. This material also raises doubts regarding environmental friendliness.
5. Silver iodide. It is used in completely hopeless cases.

As you can see, a fairly large number of reagents are used to implement this task. It all depends on what cloud layer needs to be cleared. The type of cloud also affects what material is used. Not every cloud can be dispelled, as it turns out. So science still has room to grow. However, the technology for using a substance such as silver iodide is quite new.

Arguments for clearing clouds

Naturally, there are defenders and opponents of clearing clouds. And there is nothing strange here. This procedure is truly ambiguous. For objectivity, it is necessary to consider the arguments of both sides. And you decide for yourself. So, the clouds need to be cleared away because:

• Good weather improves your mood. And these are not unfounded statements. Indeed, under the influence of light, and especially sunlight, the level of serotonin in a person’s blood increases. It is called the "hormone of happiness." Consequently, the feeling of celebration intensifies.
• No event in which money was invested will fail. This is especially relevant as an argument against supporters of the opinion that the cost of overclocking is very high. In general, holidays cost a lot of money. Is there any point in carrying them out then?
• The technological level of the country is shown. This is more about foreign policy. Although this argument is quite dubious. But since some people use it, it makes sense to include it here.

There are quite a few reasons. Indeed, they are quite significant for some people. Especially if there are any open-air events.

Arguments against cloud dispersal

There are also arguments from people who don’t care how to disperse clouds if it’s so expensive. For them, simply knowing the amount they will have to spend on it is enough. At the same time, there are more loyal people who are still against it. But at the same time it is not so categorical. What arguments do they have?

1. The cost doesn't justify the results. Everything here is extremely simple. The money spent on such work can be used in a more constructive direction. For example, you can implement the construction of new parking lots or transport interchanges. These are more structural elements. Or, for example, you can improve the sewerage and rainwater drainage system. Global warming is currently underway. Therefore, precipitation became more widespread. Soon the city sewer system will not be able to withstand such stress. But people want clear skies. In general, a controversial decision. Still, the question “how much does it cost to disperse clouds” comes first.
2. Environmental problems. Some people believe that the reagents are not environmentally friendly. Of course, this is a controversial issue. Many researchers say that there is nothing wrong with this. But sometimes farms suffer because of the dispersal of clouds. Many village residents complain that when they carry out these works, they just need rain. But the clouds never reach the fields, pouring over the city. Everything should take its course in nature. It is currently unknown exactly what could result from such heavy precipitation locally. The same applies to the effects of these reagents on people. After all, mercury and radiation were previously considered safe. But then these theses were refuted.

In general, the arguments are no less powerful than those of the supporters. We figured out how to disperse clouds. It turns out that there is nothing very complicated about this. If you have money, you can do the same. After all, now you also know how clouds disperse. Over Moscow you have to do this quite often, especially in cloudy, rainy autumn.