On April 16th, 2024, the world was shocked as Dubai, a city known for its luxurious life and desert climate, experienced heavy rainfall that caused flooding. The controversy lies in whether the rainfall was a natural occurrence or the result of cloud seeding, an artificial process that Dubai has been using extensively to cause rainfall
To fully understand the controversy surrounding cloud seeding and the Dubai floods, we need to start with the basics. In our early education, we all learned that there are three forms of matter: liquid, gas, and solid, and there are natural processes such as evaporation, condensation, and precipitation that involve the conversion of one form of matter to another.
Let us first learn what these processes are all about.
EVAPORATION -Evaporation is the process that changes liquid water to gaseous water (water vapour).
CONDENSATION– Condensation is the process by which water vapour in the air is changed into liquid water.
PRECIPITATION – Precipitation is any liquid or frozen water that forms in the atmosphere and falls back to the earth.
Now that we are familiar with these terms, we must understand how the beautiful clouds we see in the sky are formed and how they convert into rainfall or snowfall.
The different types of white masses which we see in the sky are known as clouds, these are mainly made up of ice crystals which are basically tiny droplets of water.
HOW ARE CLOUDS FORMED?
The process of formation of clouds involves the process of evaporation. when the surface of the earth becomes high in temperature, the water present in the sea and other water bodies evaporate more than usual and as a result, more water vapours are formed, these water vapours when reaches a certain point become tiny droplets of water, these droplets come together as visible white mass known as clouds.
WHAT IS RAINFALL?
The act of downpouring water is called rainfall. The scientific definition of rainfall is when the tiny droplets of water form as clouds become heavy, they burst and rainfall is called. It usually happens when humidity is increased on the surface of the earth.
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| picture credits – Pinterest |
Now that we have revised the water cycle concepts, the current issue which everyone wants to know is that of cloud seeding and how has it impacted or even caused the 2024 Dubai floods.
CLOUD SEEDING
Cloud seeding artificially creates rainfall by implanting the clouds with chemicals or crystals such as silver iodide and calcium chloride. The chemical is sprayed in the cloud through aeroplanes by which the smaller particles of the clouds are rich in supercooled water droplets and are then condensed and formed into larger rain droplets which eventually cause rainfall.
There are other ways of doing cloud seeding as well such as static cloud seeding, dynamic cloud seeding and hygroscopic cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding is usually done in the snowy regions where it can enhance the winter snowfall so that it can supplement the natural water supply in the local communities of that area. Other than that cloud seeding is also used to prevent hailstorms, dissipate fog and help the drought-prone regions.
It is also known that countries like China and Thailand already use this process and even India recently used the scientific blessing in Solhapur city located on the leeward side of the western ghats.
DUBAI CONTROVERSY
Well, the billion-dollar question which arises now is whether Dubai is facing the consequences of playing with nature or if it is nature’s blessing. While the reports suggest that the UAE has been using cloud seeding for the recent few years, some social media users wholely put the blame on cloud seeding, it was reported that the process was done on Sunday and Monday but not on Tuesday when the heavy rainfall occurred.
However, scientists and meteorologists are attributing the event to low pressure, climate change and global warming and also claim that it is misleading to blame cloud seeding for the mishap. Global warming has excessively warmed the water of the sea surrounding Dubai and nearby areas, hence leading to more moisture and apparently floods.
While we must believe what our scientist and meteorologists claim , reports on social media cannot be blindly trusted.
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