Environmental effects of silver iodide emitted by hail suppression systems in Aragón (Spain)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José María Orellana-Macías ◽  
Jesús Causapé ◽  
Jorge Pey ◽  
Blas Valero-Garcés ◽  
Jesús Reyes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Silver Iodide ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Cloud Seeding ◽  
Weather Modification ◽  
Hail Suppression ◽  
North East ◽  
State Research ◽  
Soils And Sediments ◽  
The Government ◽  
Suppression Systems

<p>Weather modification by means of cloud seeding techniques is widely implemented across the world. In areas where hail suppression systems are installed, silver iodide (AgI) particles are used.</p><p>Silver particles fall back to the surface thank to atmospheric deposition. In this research we follow a holistic approach to analyse silver accumulation in water, soils and sediments of Aragón (North-East Spain), where AgI emissions have been released for the last fifty years. We have also assessed silver bioaccumulation in plants and biota, and we have tested its effects in plant growth.</p><p>Our results show that silver concentrations in water and soils of areas covered by hail suppression networks are higher than in further areas, although concentrations are below legal thresholds. We have also observed that silver seems to be absorbed by plants and biota, which would act as a silver outflow and it may help to remove silver from the ecosystems.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong></p><p>This work was funded by Spanish State Research Agency and FEDER Funds via AgroSOS project (PID2019-108057RB-I00) and DONAIRE project (CGL2015-68993-R), and thanks to a pre-doctoral grant awarded by the Government of Aragon to J. M. Orellana-Macías (BOA 20/ 07/2017).</p>

A Transformational Approach to Winter Orographic Weather Modification Research: The SNOWIE Project

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Tessendorf ◽  
Jeffrey R. French ◽  
Katja Friedrich ◽  
Bart Geerts ◽  
Robert M. Rauber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Silver Iodide ◽  
Supercooled Liquid ◽  
Cloud Seeding ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Weather Modification ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Orographic Clouds ◽  
Seeding Material ◽  
Airborne Sensors

AbstractThe Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: The Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE) project aims to study the impacts of cloud seeding on winter orographic clouds. The field campaign took place in Idaho between 7 January and 17 March 2017 and employed a comprehensive suite of instrumentation, including ground-based radars and airborne sensors, to collect in situ and remotely sensed data in and around clouds containing supercooled liquid water before and after seeding with silver iodide aerosol particles. The seeding material was released primarily by an aircraft. It was hypothesized that the dispersal of the seeding material from aircraft would produce zigzag lines of silver iodide as it dispersed downwind. In several cases, unambiguous zigzag lines of reflectivity were detected by radar, and in situ measurements within these lines have been examined to determine the microphysical response of the cloud to seeding. The measurements from SNOWIE aim to address long-standing questions about the efficacy of cloud seeding, starting with documenting the physical chain of events following seeding. The data will also be used to evaluate and improve computer modeling parameterizations, including a new cloud-seeding parameterization designed to further evaluate and quantify the impacts of cloud seeding.

Weather modification: hail suppression in Spain

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 305-311
Author(s):  
J. Aragonés de Inés
Keyword(s):  
Computer Technology ◽  
Cloud Seeding ◽  
Weather Modification ◽  
Horticultural Crops ◽  
Hail Suppression ◽  
Hail Damage ◽  
Cloud Models

Hail damage to agricultural and horticultural crops alone costs the equivalent of millions of dollars annually in Spain, as it does in many other hail-prone countries. The use of radar and computer technology facilitates hailstorm studies and enables the probability of hail formation to be predicted from mathematical cloud models. Modern aircraft give a much better chance of success to cloud-seeding techniques formerly dependent on rockets and ground-based generators.

scholarly journals Assessment of Ground-Based and Aerial Cloud Seeding Using Trace Chemistry

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Fisher ◽  
Marion L. Lytle ◽  
Melvin L. Kunkel ◽  
Derek R. Blestrud ◽  
Nicholas W. Dawson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Silver Iodide ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Cloud Seeding ◽  
Weather Modification ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Chemical Tracers ◽  
Entire Duration ◽  
Collection Methods ◽  
Snow Samples

Targeting seedable clouds with silver iodide in complex terrain adds considerable uncertainty in weather modification studies. This study explores the geographic and temporal distribution of silver iodide associated with an active cloud seeding program in central Idaho snowpack using trace chemistry. Over 4,000 snow samples were analyzed for the presence of a cloud seeding silver iodide (AgI) signature over two winter seasons. The results indicate the following. (1) At sites within 70 km of AgI sources, silver enrichments were detected at 88% of cases involving seeding efforts from ground generators, but none from aircraft seeded cases. (2) Real-time snow collection methods were replicable within 0.41 ppt and confirmed seeding signatures for the entire duration of a seeded storm (n=3). (3) Sites sampled beyond 70 km of AgI sources (n=13) lacked detectable seeding signatures in snow. The results of this study demonstrate some of the strengths and limitations of chemical tracers to evaluate cloud seeding operations and provide observational data that can inform numerical simulations of these processes. The results also indicate that this chemical approach can be used to help constrain the spatiotemporal distribution of silver from cloud seeding efforts.

Yakut Governor Ivan Kraft and His Contribution to the Construction of the Amur-Yakutsk Highway at the Beginning of the 20th Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 94-97
Author(s):  
Lev M. Dameshek ◽  
◽  
Margarita D. Kushnareva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
East Siberia ◽  
North East ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Government

The article considers the activities of Ivan Kraft, the governor of Yakutsk Oblast, on the incorporation of North-East Siberia into the single economic, administrative and sociocultural space of the Russian Empire. The aim of the study is to analyze Kraft's contribution to the construction and arrangement of the Amur-Yakutsk Highway at the beginning of the 20th century. To reach this aim, the authors broadly use archival sources that have not been previously published and introduced into academic discourse. The topic has theoretical and applied relevance. It has not been sufficiently studied in the historiography of North-East Siberia and is the subject of scholarly and political discussions. The key method in the study is an interdisciplinary approach to the research problem, which is at the intersection of history and economics. The authors used content analysis for a quantitative and qualitative study of these sources based on the principle of historicism and consistency. The authors determined that, in connection with the design of the Amur Railway, the Amur-Yakutsk Highway received the status of a strategic infrastructure object in the macroregion. The authors note that Kraft was the initiator of the construction of the route from Yakutsk to the Amur. The governor conducted a number of scientific and engineering surveys of the most convenient route and made applications for financing the construction of the highway. Kraft made a strategic decision to attract private companies with large capital for the construction. The Upper Amur Gold Mining Company and the Heirs of A. I. Gromova company helped build highway sections with a total length of more than 500 km, equip stations, establish telegraph communications, and construct river crossings. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the framework of modernization measures, Kraft considered Yakutsk Oblast as a mining region. This became the basis for raising the question of Yakutia's access to the Trans-Siberian Railway. The close cooperation of the government, in the person of Kraft, with large enterprises of the region was the basis for the project of constructing a railway line to Yakutsk. In conclusion, the authors note that the processes of incorporation of the Asian borderlands of Russia into the economic, administrative and sociocultural space of the state that Governor of Yakutsk Oblast Ivan Kraft began at the beginning of the 20th century were reflected in the modern policy of the Russian Federation. The Amur-Yakutsk Mainline was put into operation in 2015. At present, the problem of building a bridge across the Lena in the Yakutsk area is still relevant. In 2019, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed orders to begin the construction of the bridge. This will create an international transit corridor between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project (WWMPP) Using Two Approaches: Traditional Statistics and Ensemble Modeling

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 2639-2660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy M. Rasmussen ◽  
Sarah A. Tessendorf ◽  
Lulin Xue ◽  
Courtney Weeks ◽  
Kyoko Ikeda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Physical Experiment ◽  
Annual Precipitation ◽  
Ensemble Modeling ◽  
Cloud Seeding ◽  
Weather Modification ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project randomized cloud seeding experiment was a crossover statistical experiment conducted over two mountain ranges in eastern Wyoming and lasted for 6 years (2008–13). The goal of the experiment was to determine if cloud seeding of orographic barriers could increase snowfall and snowpack. The experimental design included triply redundant snow gauges deployed in a target–control configuration, covariate snow gauges to account for precipitation variability, and ground-based seeding with silver iodide (AgI). The outcomes of this experiment are evaluated with the statistical–physical experiment design and with ensemble modeling. The root regression ratio (RRR) applied to 118 experimental units provided insufficient statistical evidence (p value of 0.28) to reject the null hypothesis that there was no effect from ground-based cloud seeding. Ensemble modeling estimates of the impact of ground-based seeding provide an alternate evaluation of the 6-yr experiment. The results of the model ensemble approach with and without seeding estimated a mean enhancement of precipitation of 5%, with an inner-quartile range of 3%–7%. Estimating the impact on annual precipitation over these mountain ranges requires results from another study that indicated that approximately 30% of the annual precipitation results from clouds identified as seedable within the seeding experiment. Thus the seeding impact is on the order of 1.5% of the annual precipitation, compared to 1% for the statistical–physical experiment, which was not sufficient to reject the null hypothesis. These results provide an estimate of the impact of ground-based cloud seeding in the Sierra Madre and Medicine Bow Mountains in Wyoming that accounts for uncertainties in both initial conditions and model physics.

scholarly journals AgI Cloud Seeding Modeling for Hail Suppression of Cold Clouds

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohaila Javanmard ◽  
Mahla Karim Pirhayati
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Seeding ◽  
Hail Suppression

scholarly journals VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND EDUCATION IN NORTH-EAST INDIA: ACCESS AND LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anupam Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

India’s north-east region, comprising of eight States is one of the less industrialised and economically backward areas of the country. Lack of skilled manpower has been identified as one of the major reasons for the underdevelopment of the manufacturing sector. Recently, the government of India has embarked on an ambitious target of improving the skill base of the country through expansion of the vocational education and training (VET) programmes. In this context, the paper examines the access to VET among the working-age population and the impact on employment and earnings using the Annual Report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18. The paper argues that despite the recent initiatives on massive skilling of the country's youth a very little section of NE has accessed formal VET. Moreover, although it has some impact on raising labour force participation, there is no evidence that formal VET courses are effective enough to increase earnings, bridge the gender gap in wages, or the improving work conditions of the VET holders.

scholarly journals Rethinking the Security Architecture of North East Asia

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 273
Author(s):  
Michael J Kelly ◽  
Sean Watts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
North Korea ◽  
The United States ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cold War

In the aftermath of the Cold War, many began to question the continuing efficacy, or at least call for reform, of collective security structures such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations Security Council. Yet, North East Asia never enjoyed a formal, institutionalised collective security structure. As Russia and the United States recede and China emerges in North East Asia, this article questions whether now is the time to consider such an arrangement. Financially, Japan and South Korea are locked into a symbiotic relationship with China (as is the United States), while the government in Beijing continues to militarise and lay territorial and maritime claims to large areas of the region. Moreover, the regime in North Korea, with its new nuclear capabilities, remains unpredictable. Consequently, central components to the question of collective security in North East Asia are the equally vexing questions of what to do about North Korea and whether a new formalised security arrangement would include or exclude the People's Republic of China.

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