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Well-Known Member
PRESIDENT PUTIN has ordered fine weather for the St Petersburg summit and 300th anniversary festivities next
week, and it is unlikely to rain on his parade.
Ten aeroplanes will take to the skies, equipped with
cloud-seeding agents in an attempt to induce rain away from
the city, allowing holidaymakers and visiting heads of state to
enjoy dry weather below.
Celebrations of the anniversary of Russia’s historic capital and
seat of imperial government a week today will be attended by
hundreds of thousands of visitors. A weekend of festivities
will be attended by President Putin, President Bush, Tony Blair
and the leaders of other EU nations.
Vladimir Stepanenko, head physicist of St Petersburg’s
Geophysics Observatory, said: “Our aim is to empty all clouds
of rain before they hit the city borders.” Such practice may
strike awe into the heart of every rain-soaked Brit, but
Russians take “cloud-bursting” for granted, having enjoyed its
benefits over public holidays since Stalin gave the order to
research weather control in the 1930s.
Over decades, the observatory in St Petersburg has
developed techniques to dispel clouds, divert hailstorms from
harvests, arrest avalanches, disperse fogs from airports and
bring rain to drought-afflicted regions.
The most reliable form of rain prevention is to induce the clouds
to rain before they float over the area under protection. The
pilots on board the cloud-bursters will be directed towards
rainclouds by meteorologists on the ground. On the orders of
geophysicists on board the aircraft, dry ice will be dispensed
into the clouds from a mile away. The dry ice is fired in special
pyrotechnic capsules that combust once empty. Once injected
with dry ice, rain crystalises within the cloud and falls ten or
fifteen minutes later.
Approximately one kilogram of dry ice is used for every square
kilometre of rain cloud. Rainclouds will be burst at a safe
distance of 30 miles (50km) outside the city, where locals,
used to sudden rain on fine days, will have their umbrellas
ready. But thunderclouds are feared because pilots are by law
forbidden to fly within more than seven miles of them, making it
impossible to seed them with raininducing agents. The aircraft
will patrol the skies until the end of the summit on May 31.
Russia’s first private weather controlling agency, the
Atmosphere Technologies Agency, will be taking part in the
delicate operation. It is hoping for rainclouds. “No rainclouds
equals no pay,” Viktor Petrov, the deputy director, said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-689317,00.html
week, and it is unlikely to rain on his parade.
Ten aeroplanes will take to the skies, equipped with
cloud-seeding agents in an attempt to induce rain away from
the city, allowing holidaymakers and visiting heads of state to
enjoy dry weather below.
Celebrations of the anniversary of Russia’s historic capital and
seat of imperial government a week today will be attended by
hundreds of thousands of visitors. A weekend of festivities
will be attended by President Putin, President Bush, Tony Blair
and the leaders of other EU nations.
Vladimir Stepanenko, head physicist of St Petersburg’s
Geophysics Observatory, said: “Our aim is to empty all clouds
of rain before they hit the city borders.” Such practice may
strike awe into the heart of every rain-soaked Brit, but
Russians take “cloud-bursting” for granted, having enjoyed its
benefits over public holidays since Stalin gave the order to
research weather control in the 1930s.
Over decades, the observatory in St Petersburg has
developed techniques to dispel clouds, divert hailstorms from
harvests, arrest avalanches, disperse fogs from airports and
bring rain to drought-afflicted regions.
The most reliable form of rain prevention is to induce the clouds
to rain before they float over the area under protection. The
pilots on board the cloud-bursters will be directed towards
rainclouds by meteorologists on the ground. On the orders of
geophysicists on board the aircraft, dry ice will be dispensed
into the clouds from a mile away. The dry ice is fired in special
pyrotechnic capsules that combust once empty. Once injected
with dry ice, rain crystalises within the cloud and falls ten or
fifteen minutes later.
Approximately one kilogram of dry ice is used for every square
kilometre of rain cloud. Rainclouds will be burst at a safe
distance of 30 miles (50km) outside the city, where locals,
used to sudden rain on fine days, will have their umbrellas
ready. But thunderclouds are feared because pilots are by law
forbidden to fly within more than seven miles of them, making it
impossible to seed them with raininducing agents. The aircraft
will patrol the skies until the end of the summit on May 31.
Russia’s first private weather controlling agency, the
Atmosphere Technologies Agency, will be taking part in the
delicate operation. It is hoping for rainclouds. “No rainclouds
equals no pay,” Viktor Petrov, the deputy director, said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-689317,00.html
