The one to suffer for weeks under a drought, somewhere else there is torrential rain – this weather kariol long considered to be freaks of nature, where one could not change. But for decades, researchers are working night and day to the climate control. Dream the summer, the experts are not on the push of a button, so far. But with modern technology it is possible to influence the weather, at least locally. Though not without side effects.

That showed a case from Mexico, the “Financial Times” reported last year. The focus of the car manufacturer Volkswagen, the installed to a factory, a so called hail defense. Must be simplified as a kind of cannon, imagine the shock waves shoot in certain weather conditions in the atmosphere, in order to prevent hail formation. In this way, the 450,000 vehicles produced here per year, and outside of the factory Parking should be protected from hail damage.

What good was, however, reported the local farmers that the son of The Farmer, that the Hail suppression triggered a drought is for the cars. The farmer Gerardo Perez said: “The sky was completely clear, it has not just rained.” 2000 hectares of Land had been affected by the drought, the crop losses in the millions. Volkswagen announced to margins in the future, networks using the parked cars to protect it from Hailstones. The case shows: Not everything that is possible is also useful.

About the (Un)sense of the weather manipulation

In science circles, such measures to weather manipulation are controversial. There is no quick solution for the description of complex meteorological phenomena, writes the British “Guardian”. The Dutch meteorologist Jon Wieringa refers to such technologies as “waste of money and effort” – and many colleagues agree with him. “The only positive effect that occurs when you shoot rockets and grenades in hail-prone thunderstorms, to Protect the happiness feeling of the one who shoots at his enemy” – this is the hard conclusion.

weather in Germany is snow on the Zugspitze: The roller-coaster ride of the summer is not over yet REUTERS

Effective it is to put chemicals directly in the clouds. Usually, silver iodide is mixed with acetone, and the aircraft is sprayed, to produce in the atmosphere of small condensation nuclei for the targeted rain – or hail formation. In order to prevent the formation of large Hailstones, on the other hand, certain areas in a targeted manner with precipitation.

Meanwhile, more than 50 countries use this method writes the “Guardian”: A airport in Medford in the U.S. state of Oregon fought in this fog, in Colorado, more than 100 machines produced clouds to increase the snow fall. In order for the Ski to boost tourism, and the snow melt will be amplified in the spring. A cost of a Million dollars per year. In China, one is planning such a project in a large-scale: cloud factories are to be built in an area three times as large as Spain, reports “Forbes”.

the First experience of the Chinese, collected already more than ten years ago: the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in 2008, does not fall in Beijing, into the water, leaving the organizers more than 1000 rockets climb into the sky. With success: even Though it poured from buckets, it remained during the worldwide telecast Events dry.

weather manipulation: The consequences are unmanageable

In individual regions, it can be useful to influence the formation of clouds. However, experts warn of the risks: You fight mainly the symptoms rather than the causes for droughts. In addition, the consequences for the global climate are difficult to estimate, especially if the projects dimensions, such as in China to accept. One man’s joy can be another man’s poison, as is the case of farmers in Mexico.

The Geoengineering expert Janos Pasztor holds other approaches for target leading. In the long term, it would help mitigate climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere. The Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen suggested once, with the help of aircraft cooling sulfur into the stratosphere at 25 to 30 kilometres to bring height to the greenhouse effect stem. The air particles, the sun would reflect light easily. The cooling would be, in a sense, the end effect of a volcanic eruption, “only without the ash and the big Bang,” says Pasztor.

Such geotechnical large-scale trials, however, there are also a lot of criticism. Despite decades of research, we don’t know enough about the climate to make such experiments with an uncertain outcome. However, this is likely to be only a matter of time. Pasztor calls, therefore, on the introduction of guidelines before powerful corporations or governments car independently of the initiative.

daily question of Why to show all the weather Apps, something else?

today it Is again Sunny? Do I need to pack for the weekend trip for an umbrella? More and more people use weather Apps for the weather forecast. But why would any other results from the spits?

By Christoph Fröhlich