How to make a raincloud disappear ?

[Ylle]

Hi !

I've heard about a concert, I think, where it started to rain pretty much. Then the band, had a chopper or some kind of plane to throw something on top of the clouds over the concert place, to make the clouds disappear. But I don't know what. So my question is: What can you throw on top of rainclouds to make them disappear? I've heard something about dry ice should do the trick, but can that be true?


Thank you.
- Ylle

[Astronuc]

You may be referring to 'cloud seeding' in which mineral crystals (e.g. AgI, silver iodide) are dropped into clouds in order to nucleate rain drops and induce preciptiation.

Perhaps dry ice was used to cool the cloud, which would have the effect of condensing the water vapor.

Here - this company does exactly the above.

Weather Modification, Inc (http://www.weathermod.com/services/cloud_seed/concepts.php)

[DaveC426913]

As for the concert controlling its own weather, that sounds pretty far-fetched. They would be billionaires if they could stop rain on demand.

[Billnmd2006]

Storms are broke up here all the time by planes. China kept it from raining at the Olympics also. So yes the concert did Weather modification. It's called rain supression.

[Borek]

Russia is (or at least was in times of Soviet Union) known for keeping sky in Moscow clear during special events.

[Sakha]

They can try to make it rain (cloud seeding) using silver iodide or dry ice. Maybe making it rain the day before an event its possible to reduce the probabilities of rain during the event. I heard that they did this for Beijing Olympiads.

[Borek]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Weather_Modification_Office

Can't find easily anything about Russians attempts. From what I remember they were seeding clouds approaching Moscow starting 50 or even more kilometers from the city, so that the sky above the city was completely cloudless.

[DaleSwanson]

As for Russia, I remember reading about the attempt at snow control this winter. For some reason I had thought that it was attempted and failed. I can't find anything that said they actually tried it though. However, it does seem they have used it to prevent rain and snow in the past.
"It is stupid to say that there won't be any snow in Moscow. If there is some five centimetres of it, it's absolutely fine, but there is a limit when all the transport just stops," he said, adding that the aim of winter cloud-seeding would not be to get rid of snow, but to control its level, not letting it go over this maximum limit.

The planes will be out only occasionally, said Mr Stasenko, to prevent major snowfall that happens on average three or four times a month. Thus it will cost a lot less than using snowploughs that are out most days of the winter.

"Besides, the idea didn't come to the Moscow mayor from nowhere, it is based on facts. In the early 1980s, back in the Soviet period, there was a special service to limit snowfall over Moscow. It stopped working during perestroika [Gorbachev's reforms], when money became scarce," Mr Stasenko said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8587725.stm
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100114/157543348.html

[Borek]

Early eighties will fit things I remember.