A.Smith.wiki.spring.2011Edit

= Cloud Seeding  =

__What is it?__ Cloud seeding is a process of weather modification in which substances are disperced into the air to alter the amount or state of precipitation that falls from clouds. Dry ice or more commonly silver iodide aerosols is sprayed into the upper parts of clouds to stimulate the formation of rain clouds and the prcitipation process.

__How does it work?__ When warm air rises from the earth, it cools and eventually forms tiny droplets of water. These droplets of water form around small particlessuch as dust, salt or soil, called cloud condensation nuclei. When gathered together, these droplets form clouds. When millions of droplets merge together in clouds to form bigger droplets, which fall back down to the earth as rain in warm temperatures. In cold weather, ice crystals are formed. Other droplets freeze onto these droplets until they grow heavy enough to fall down to the ground as snow or hail. Basically cloud seeding is a process in which other particles are introduced into a cloud to act as an alternative cloud condensation nuclei. There are three different types of cloud seeding. Cloud seeding can be done either by use of airplanes or by using ground atillery that shoots rockets into the sky. bad ass.
 * Static mode - adding ice crystals to a cloud to increase rainfall
 * Dynamic mode - essentially the same thing as static mode, but a much larger number of ice crystals are bing added
 * Hygroscopic seeding - salt crystals are shot into a could. The particles then grow until they are large enough to with water droplets to cause precipitation
 * [[image:cloud_seeding.gif caption="Picture from http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/cloudseeding.html"]] ||
 * Picture from http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/cloudseeding.html ||