Dubai is going through a difficult period of extreme heat conditions. The area within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has high temperatures that reach 50 degrees Fahrenheit and endanger the lives of more than 3 million people living in the city.
Recently in Canada, more than 500 people were reported to have died from the heat. To avoid these effects the UAE through the climate unit has come up with a technology that can reduce that temperature, and that technology is the manufacture of fake rain.
The country's weather station via its website, this week posted a video via its Twitter network showing the heavy rain that was falling in several places as people continued their normal lives and cars were seen passing through the flooded highways.
Drones were sent to the horizontal clouds on the outskirts of Dubai to implement the technology, which is now being tested.
How does the technology work?
According to the UAE's meteorological unit, special drones have been developed, which are fitted with special electric power.
These planes are sent into the sky on clouds and when they get there they allow lightning that strikes or strikes the clouds and pushes the clouds to change their structure.
These changes result in moisture and water that fall to the ground and become rain which is no different from normal rainfall.
Prof Maarten Ambaum, a leading expert on the fake rain project, was quoted by the BBC as saying the project and other fake rain projects, especially at a time when the country is experiencing heat waves, saying 'this country has a lot of clouds, so the plan is to push these droplets of water can cling like dry hair when exposed to electricity ',
"When these drops come together and become big, they drop, when they drop they become wet," he said.
Alya Al-Mazroui, Director of the Extra Rainfall Investigation Unit, said during the pilot of this program or technology "these planes will soar into the atmosphere and throw lightning at clouds and bring rain."
Is it easy to make fake rain?
Researchers express differing views on this technology, but many agree that it is costly to achieve the desired rainfall goals in a particular country or region.
In the United Arab Emirates, the government has given priority to such projects and has been allocating funds to support their implementation.
The country is already using another technology to salt the clouds. The drones are flown into the air and go to drop salt in the clouds and cause rain. These types of aircraft need to be large enough to carry out their intended purpose and thus increase costs.
In 2017, the UAE Government provided $ 15m for 9 projects to support the production of fake rain. Scientists from the University of Reading are among the experts running one of these projects.
Is Fake Rain Safe for Dubai?
The UAE especially the Dubai area receives very little rainfall per year, only about 100mm which is very small, due to its environment and drought conditions. As a result, global warming is becoming increasingly common in the country, making it especially the city of Dubai, which is said to be one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. Climate authorities are currently struggling to raise more rainfall to reduce temperatures.
The UAE has come up with the Fake Rain plan that has begun testing in Dubai, but many questions arise about its safety. Wouldn't the project cause a catastrophic flood?
As it turned out, the experiments on this fake rain project have gone well and been successful. There were many small yellow warplanes in the sky from small drones to indicate that the planes had succeeded. Any aircraft sent to the clouds would light a red light or anything other than yellow light, meaning it has failed to reach the target.
But during the trials, there were times when the rains were heavier and raised many questions about the disadvantages of the fake rain project. Still, questions remain about its safety and how to control whether the rains will increase and intensify due to the electricity of the aircraft sent to hit the clouds.
This UAE initiative, especially Dubai's fake rainwater harvesting program, is being developed as a bigger project and will be able to use larger planes instead of smaller drones, making it an ambitious project in the future.
