Clouds form over Australian Rain Corporation ...

Excerpt from ABC News:

Clouds form over rain-making technology

23 November 2007

Rain-making technology funded by the Australian Government has been given the thumbs down by international scientists, says an adviser to the World Meteorological Organisation.

Dr Roelof Bruintjes is a cloud physicist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He advises the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on rainfall enhancement.

Dr Bruintjes was commenting on technology soon to be tested in Queensland by the Australian Rain Corporation. He is currently in Australia advising the Queensland Government on cloud seeding.

The Sydney-based company, which was recently allocated $10 million from the Australian Government Water Fund, hopes to use forthcoming trials to show its technology can bring rain.

The technology is being tested to see if it can make new rain clouds from blue skies by generating ions in the atmosphere.

This is very different from existing rain-making technology, which relies on seeding existing clouds, and has been carried out for decades in Tasmania and the Snowy Mountains.

Some Australian experts have already publicly said they are sceptical of the new ionisation technology and Dr Bruintjes agrees.

"I don't think it's money well spent to be honest with you - as far as I'm concerned it's physically not possible," he says.

"Nobody can make or chase away a cloud. Nobody can make rain out of nothing."

Making clouds from scratch?

But proponents of the technology say the criticism is unjust.

Scientists involved in testing the Australian Rain Corporation technology, including Professor Jürg Keller of the University of Queensland, say the ionisation system uses a ground-based device to attract water molecules.

These condense, generating heat that, in turn, triggers an up-draft of the kind that occurs when clouds form naturally.

But Dr Bruintjes says WMO experts have already warned against using such ionisation techniques because they are not based on accepted scientific principles.

He says while it is possible to ionise atmospheric particles, it is not possible to modify the thermodynamic structure of the atmosphere and so there is no current credible theory to support the idea.

He also says evaluations of the technology in the United Arab Emirates and Mexico have shown it is not useful in enhancing rainfall.

Dr Bruintjes does not understand why Australia has embraced the technology.

"Any country that is in a severe drought is desperate to use any type of technology and maybe this is what has happened in Australia," he said.

Queanbeyan-based sustainability consultant Andrew Campbell is a former chief executive officer of Land and Water Australia. He is advising the Australian Rain Corporation on the Queensland trials.

He says it is prudent to investigate whether the technology works in Australian conditions, even if scientists do not understand how it works.

"From a water policy perspective, the much more important question is whether or not this technology enhances rainfall," he said.

"If it does we can analyse the mechanisms at our leisure. If it doesn't then that's a completely academic exercise."

Mr Campbell says he is not aware of any prior evaluation of the technology Australian Rain Corporation will be trialing.

But Dr Bruintjes is adamant the technology is the same Russian-developed system that has been promoted over many years by various companies around the world, and which the WMO has warned against.

Competitors?

Mr Campbell says criticism of the competing ionisation technology is not justified.

"It's understandable that people involved in cloud seeding are concerned about a competitive technology," he said.

"But until it is properly scientifically evaluated, claims either for or against aren't credible."

Dr Bruintjes agrees there is an urgent to investigate rain enhancement technologies but says there are better ways to spend the money.

He says one problem is that it is very difficult to determine the success of any rain enhancement technology because of natural variation in rainfall.

Dr Bruintjes says it is important to develop a better understanding of how rain forms in clouds, and how technologies with known physical mechanisms can manipulate this.

"We need to focus on understanding rather than just going out blindly testing technology we don't understand," he said.

See - Clouds gathering.

Seems unlikely they would get any additional funding from a KRudd Labor government ...