Dubai: New technology to make artificial clouds tested out on Jebel Jais

Dubai: New technology to make artificial clouds tested out on Jebel Jais

First phase last year tested an innovative jet engine composite system on the country's highest peak

By WAM Published: Fri 28 Oct 2022, 2:46 PM

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), through the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP), completed the second phase of innovative technology demonstration trials to explore the possibility of artificial cloud formation by stimulating local updrafts.

The field trials were conducted on Jebel Jais, the UAE's highest peak at 1,934 metres above sea level, in Ras Al Khaimah, by a research team led by Dr Ali Abshaev, UAEREP's third cycle awardee and Senior Researcher at the Hail Suppression Research Centre in Russia.

The team observed wintertime local-scale cloud processes and precipitation over the eastern areas of the UAE and compared the results with their previous springtime trials conducted from February 17 to March 26, 2021.

The project's purpose was to study the possibility of stimulating cumulus cloud formation using an innovative jet engine composite system which releases a high-velocity stream of customised aerosol particles into the atmosphere to trigger artificial updrafts and, consequently, cloud formation.

From December 24, 2021, to January 5, 2022, the team conducted twelve experiments in different atmospheric conditions. These included three experiments in clear cloudless sky