VARIOUS: Israeli scientists trying to devise method of irrigating desert with rain making machine

Record ID: 481056

  • Title: VARIOUS: Israeli scientists trying to devise method of irrigating desert with rain making machine
  • Date: 8th January 2004
  • Summary: (L!2)JERUSALEM (JANUARY 8, 2004) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDER P. KHAIN, PROFESSOR IN DEPARTMENT OF ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY IN JERUSALEM, SAYING "Now, two years ago an idea arises to seed clouds with charged droplets. The idea is that neutral droplets and charged droplets attract each other, so they became larger and larger and larger and they fall down. This mechanism works also in clouds and in fogs." VARIOUS OF RESEARCHER RAISING TUBE, SMOKE DISPERSING WIDE OF PROFESSOR YURI FELDMAN, HEAD OF LABORATORY OF THE PHYSICS OF DIELECTRICS AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY IN JERUSALEM, SITTING AT DESK CLOSE OF PRESENTATION ON COMPUTER SHOWING HOW THE PROCESS COULD BE USED TO SEED CLOUDS TO MAKE RAIN SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR FELDMAN SAYING: "So, the main idea of this invention is to control the process of rain droplets creating in the clouds and fog elimination with the help of charging of these droplets. Actually, what we invent is the way to control the climate." CLOSE OF RAIN FALLING/ FOCUS ON TREE CLOSE OF RAIN DROPS ON PUDDLE
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR BEER SHEBA, SOUTHERN ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM/ TEXAS, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Nature / Environment,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVADBFK5ZI78YS829SWEQJTMS25J
  • Story Text: Science or Alchemy? Israeli researchers want to make deserts bloom with a rain making machine For years, many have dreamt about how to bring water to the arid desert of the Negev, in southern Israel. And now a group of Israeli scientists say they may have the secret of how to make the desert bloom.
    A group of Israeli scientists of Russian origin have been working on their project in a laboratory in Jerusalem's Hebrew University, where they have created a rain making machine.
    They hope the machine will one day be developed into a contraption that can be flown through clouds and sow them to cause rainfall over deserts or other areas that need water.
    In a plastic tube the scientists have created an artificial cloud made up of tiny water particles so light that they float in the air.
    At the base of the contraption, a special electrical appliance is used to give the water particles in the artificially created 'cloud' a small electrical charge.
    Some get a positive charge and some a negative charge.
    Just like magnets that attract each other, the droplets then coalesce. As they get bigger, they get heavier and fall to the ground as rain.
    "The idea is that neutral droplets and charged droplets attract each other, so they became larger and larger and larger and they fall down," atmospheric sciences professor Alexander B. Khain told Reuters.
    If the initial experimental apparatus can be developed, the scientists hope that it would provide a far more efficient alternative to existing techniques which involve the sowing of clouds with crystals that start the process of cloud condensation.
    The appliance could also have very important applications on the ground. Every year, tens of thousands of flights are delayed by fog at airports. A reliable machine like this could help disperse it rapidly, keeping airports clear.
    Of course, it will take many years of work and millions of dollars on research before the arid sands of southern Israel are turned into a tropical paradise. But that does not stop the Hebrew University researchers from working to achieve their dreams.
    "What we have invented is the way to control the climate," said laboratory chief Yuri Feldman.
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