Dubai is making it rain with drones that shoot laser beams into clouds to prompt rainfall.
This works like a cattle prod for clouds, forcing small water droplets together to create big ones.
Dubai gets 4 inches of rainfall per year and saw temperatures shoot up to 125 degrees in June.
The National Center of Meteorology in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has found a new way to make it rain. It’s using laser-beam-shooting drones to generate rainfall artificially.
Last week the country’s weather service posted two videos offering proof of the heavy downpours in Dubai’s streets.
Here’s how it works: The drones shoot laser beams into the clouds, charging them with electricity. The charge prompts precipitation by forcing water droplets together to create bigger raindrops, essentially electrifying the air to create rain.
This past March, the BBC reported that the UAE was looking to test the drone technology, which it developed in collaboration with the University of Reading in the UK.
Artificially generated rain is crucial because Dubai only gets an average of 4 inches of rainfall annually. This makes farming difficult and forces the country to import more than 80% of its food.
Enterprise7
Article URL : https://news.yahoo.com/dubai-coping-125-degree-heat-042104930.html