Last updated: Wed 30 Aug 2023, 6:57 AM

The is undertaking a special cloud-seeding mission that could enhance rainfall in the desert even further. The month-long mission that starts from Al Ain International Airport will start next week.

The campaign is being conducted by the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) and will continue until the end of September.

During the campaign, a group of researchers and pilots will cross-examine the performance of different cloud seeding materials with and without electric charge. This will help the NCM understand and perform cloud seeding in a more efficient way.

Data acquisition will be carried out by advanced instrumentation and sensors installed on the NCM seeding aircraft and the SPEC Learjet.

Earlier this month, a top NCM official revealed to Khaleej Times that 22 cloud seeding missions were conducted in the since June. During the month, there were several instances of rain in variparts of the country.

Cloud-seeding- a method of boosting a cloud's capacity to produce rain- began in the in the late 1990s. The key factor to cloud seeding is spotting convective clouds - which are perfect for the mission because of their rain-bearing capacity. A special aircraft is used to shoot salt flares into these clouds to enhance rainfall.

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