A Quest for Effective Hygroscopic Cloud Seeding

Abstract

Abstract It is shown here that hygroscopic seeding requires two orders of magnitude more hygroscopic agent than can be delivered by flare technology for producing raindrop embryos in concentrations to detect by cloud physics aircraft the microphysical signature of rain initiation. An alternative method of finely milled salt powder is shown to be capable of achieving this goal. During field experiments the use of a sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas tracer to identify the exact seeded cloud volume and to quantify dilution of the seeding agent showed that the seeding agent dilutes to the order of 10−10 of its released concentration in updrafts at a height of ≥1 km above cloud base. This means that the theoretically expected changes in the cloud drop size distribution (DSD) would not be detectable with a cloud droplet spectrometer in a measurement volume collected during the several seconds that the seeded volume is traversed by an aircraft. The actual measurements failed to identify a clear microphysical seeding signature from the burning of hygroscopic flares within the seeded convective clouds. This uncertainty with respect to hygroscopic flare–seeding experiments prompted an experimental and theoretical search for optimal hygroscopic seeding materials. This search culminated in the production of a salt powder having 2–5-μm-diameter particle sizes that are optimal according to model simulations, and can be distributed from a crop duster aircraft. Such particles act as giant cloud condensation nuclei (GCCN). Any potential broadening of the DSD at cloud base by the competition effect (i.e., when the seeded aerosols compete with the natural ambient aerosols for water vapor) occurs when the seeding agent has not been substantially diluted, and hence affects only a very small cloud volume that dilutes quickly. Therefore, the main expected effect of the GCCN is probably to serve as raindrop embryos. The salt powder–seeding method is more productive by two orders of magnitude than the hygroscopic flares in producing GCCN that can initiate rain in clouds with naturally suppressed warm rain processes, because of a combination of change in the particle size distribution and the greater seeding rate that is practical with the powder. Experimental seeding of salt powder in conjunction with the simultaneous release of an SF6 gas tracer produced strong seeding signatures, indicating that the methodology works as hypothesized. The efficacy of the accelerated warm rain processes in altering rainfall amounts may vary under different conditions, and requires additional research that involves both observations and simulations.