Maharashtra Government approves cloud seeding project for 2017 monsoon

February 18, 2017

Maharashtra Government has approved Rs. 250 crore Cloud Seeding Programme during 2017 monsoon season to produce sufficient rain.
Under this programme, weather scientists using aircrafts will spray chemicals (silver iodide) over clouds clouds hovering above Solapur district, a rain shadow region of Western Ghats in the state.

Key Facts
  • This will be the first controlled experiment to quantify the extent to which clouds form water drops large enough to make rain.
  • This programme, coordinated by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, will be the first controlled experiment to quantify the extent to which clouds form water drops large enough to make rain.
  • In this experiment, scientists will fly two aircraft and spray silver iodide and dry ice on 100 clouds and compare them with 100 unseeded clouds. Ground radar will be used to track the clouds and verify which ones contributed rain.

Cloud Seeding

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4 Comments

  1. Vikas deshmukh

    February 19, 2017 at 12:15 am

    Nice

  2. Vikas deshmukh

    February 19, 2017 at 12:15 am

    Nice

  3. Kaushik

    February 24, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    This is not the first incidence of cloud seeding experiment in India.Since 1950 a number of projects had been undertaken, some of which are as follows:

    1951 – Tata firm over western Ghats using ground based silver iodide generators
    1957-1966 National Physical Laboratory (NPL) conducted experiments using ground based generators, in North India.

    1973-1974, 1976,and 1979-86 IITM, experiments with cloud seeding shows 24% increase in the rain fall.

    1983, 1984-87,1993-94 Tamil Nadu Govt carried out cloud seeding

    1990-2000 witnessed many advances in the airborne instrumentation, radars, flares and softwares. They got imported to India in new millennium.

    2003 Karnataka Govt has initiated cloud seeding with modern gradztes like radars and aircrafts Maharashtra Govt followed a month later.

    2003-2009 Andhrapradesh Govt has conducted cloud seeding operations perhaps the longest & biggest programme in south east Asia.

  4. Kaushik

    February 24, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    This is not the first incidence of cloud seeding experiment in India.Since 1950 a number of projects had been undertaken, some of which are as follows:
    1951 – Tata firm over western Ghats using ground based silver iodide generators
    1957-1966 National Physical Laboratory (NPL) conducted experiments using ground based generators, in North India.
    1973-1974, 1976,and 1979-86 IITM, experiments with cloud seeding shows 24% increase in the rain fall.
    1983, 1984-87,1993-94 Tamil Nadu Govt carried out cloud seeding
    1990-2000 witnessed many advances in the airborne instrumentation, radars, flares and softwares. They got imported to India in new millennium.
    2003 Karnataka Govt has initiated cloud seeding with modern gradztes like radars and aircrafts Maharashtra Govt followed a month later.
    2003-2009 Andhrapradesh Govt has conducted cloud seeding operations perhaps the longest & biggest programme in south east Asia.

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