Make the Rain with a Laser

Currently scientists in Switzerland have found one more way to create an artificial rain, namely by moving the laser beam. This finding may make the area dry and barren in many parts of the world get a little moisture.

Rain clouds are formed when a bag of tiny particles of water vapor condensing in the world around him. With sufficient seed rain like that, it forms clouds and eventually lead to rain.

There are several techniques to control the rain to cast a compound fine particles such as dry ice and silver iodide in the atmosphere, thus making rain droplets formed around it. "But many people started skeptical of weather modification techniques like that," said Jerome Kasparian, a physicist at the University of Geneva.

The controversy emerged regarding the effectiveness of such a cloud seeding. In that technique. chemicals spread out in a very wide area, so that the variability in the atmosphere will be very difficult to estimate how dry ice or silver iodide affects the atmosphere.

As an alternative to the old technique, Kasparian and his colleagues now uncover new ways to control moisture by using a laser beam. In experiments with infrared lasers on the River Rhone in Geneva, taking into account a variety of temperature, moisture and other atmospheric conditions, the research team found that the laser can trigger the growth of micron-sized water droplets at a fairly low humidity, only 70 percent. However, water droplets formed is not large enough to fall as rain.

"At such low levels of humidity, condensation does not occur under natural conditions," said Kasparian. "At least the required relative humidity is 100 percent."

In the journal Nature revealed, the secret lies in the laser beam laser to change how chemicals such as nitric acid, which acts as the seed rain. formed in the air. These particles tend to associate with water molecules, works like a kind of glue that keeps the water droplets remain in a fairly dry conditions. This usually causes the water droplets berevaporasi or evaporate.

In contrast to other techniques of artificial rain fall rain location is uncertain, the researchers were able to direct the laser on the target and controlled at the desired time anyway. This shows the effectiveness of different lasers to control humidity with weather modification techniques that exist today.

"But a new technique that can not be implemented to create rain in the near future," said Kasparian. "Lasers can indeed create watery particles and make it grow, but size is limited to only a few micro. Keep in particle size of 10 to 100 times more likely to produce a real rain."

Techniques of artificial rain using this laser system does not require an airplane. "This type of laser that we use can reach up to several kilometers, so the atmosphere can be activated using a laser fired from the earth," he said.

Kasparian state laser technique does not need to be combined with another rain seeding techniques. "Producing the particles are too many risky precisely to thwart the occurrence of rain because the particles would be competing against each other to condense the moisture available in the atmosphere," he said. "The competition led to any water droplets can not be enlarged and the diameter remained small, not enough to be drops of rain that will fall to the earth."

The only problem about this kind of weather control is possible laser stealing moisture that should lead to other places that need it. "Actually, the laser can only condense the moisture from the air in limited numbers, so the risk a country seize all sources of air masses is not as serious as what happened to the water surface," said Kasparian. "Technically, a country able to pump river water until it runs out before the river crossing the border."*** [LIVESCIENCE | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 3638]