Weather Modification Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Weather modif ication is the process by which, deliberately or otherwise, human intervention changes or attempts to change weather conditions. Deliberate interventions include attempts to weaken hurricanes or to change patterns of precipitation for agricultural purposes. Inadvertent interventions include the widespread burning of carbon fuels that leads to global warming and has various impacts upon weather systems. Speculation exists as to whether the use of weather modification in warfare is a viable concept. The limited success with which weather modification has been completed for peaceful purposes would suggest that it is not possible.

Perhaps the most common attempt to modify the weather comes from the use of substances such as dry ice or silver iodide to seed clouds with supercool particles to alter rainfall. Experiments in this area began on a systematic basis with the work of Vincent J. Schaefer and Irving Langmuir, recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for chemistry. They determined that super-cooled clouds could be made to dissipate in certain circumstances or else to begin precipitation because ice crystals are formed that are too large to remain part of clouds. The use of this technology can help to organize precipitation at a time deemed suitable for agricultural or social purposes (to prevent rain during parades, for example, which Soviet scientists attempted).

In the United States, this has caused a number of state-level bodies to pursue legislation to determine ownership of clouds because of concerns over access to needed water resources. However, the degree to which the precipitation can be affected remains largely unpredictable, owing in part to the complexity of atmospheric conditions. Nevertheless, this has not deterred governments of countries around the world from trying to modify cloud behavior by spreading particles from airplanes, distributing them by rockets or artillery, or otherwise causing them to be lifted on air currents. The ability of scientists to modify weather conditions systematically and consistently remains low, although it is possible that Soviet scientists were able to influence the fall of hail on a predictable basis. Consequently, the hope that it will be a useful weapon in the struggle against intensified and more prevalent dangerous weather conditions such as hurricanes and droughts remains impractical.

Bibliography:

Stanley A. Changnon, “Inadvertent Weather Modification in Urban Areas: Lessons for Global Climate Change,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (v.73/5, 1992);
Congressional Research Service, Weather Modification: Programs, Problems, Policy, and Potential (University Press of the Pacific, 2004);
John A. Day and Vincent J. Schaefer, A Field Guide to the Atmosphere (Houghton Mifflin, 1998);
Weather Modification Association, http://weathermod.org/.