This metropolis will resort to artificial rain to cool down the city and slow
down a power demand that is outstripping the supply.
The man-made precipitation is part of local meteorological authorities'
efforts to set up a long-term mechanism aimed at minimizing losses caused by bad
weather like prolonged heatwaves or heavy fog, officials said.
"We will conduct an artificial precipitation test soon in late June, if
everything goes as scheduled," said Wang Jin, a publicity official of the
Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.
To precipitate the rain, an airplane travels over the city to create seed
clouds with a catalyst like salt, silver iodide or dry ice. Any of the three can
induces rainfall and thus lower the temperature, said Wang.
If the test goes smoothly, the approach will then be used during the city's
hottest summer days, which are expected to match the peak periods for power
demand.
Shanghai suffered several power shortages last summer, when a unprecedented
heatwave hit the city. For a record 40 days in a row, maximum temperatures
stayed above 35 C.
Due to the soaring power demand at that time, power was even temporarily cut
to some industrial sectors in a few cases.
Local meteorological authorities have forecast that this year the city will
have up to 21 days when temperatures will exceed 35 C.
Though apparently much lower than that of 2003, it is still worth noting.
Normally, Shanghai has only about nine such days in a summer, according to
Wang.
The country saw the first application of artificial precipitation as early as
the 1950s. In most cases, it is used to bring relief to an area afflicted by
drought.
In the 1990s, Shanghai used such artificial approaches to precipitate
rainfall before the opening of East Asia Games and the Eighth National Sports
Games.
According to Huang Jiaxin, director of the Shanghai Atmospheric Sciences
Research Development Centre, artificial rainfall can help reduce affliction from
natural disasters, reduce water shortages and improve the local ecological
environment.
The practice can boost rainfall by 5-20 per cent in a specific area, Huang
said.
"As it is only applied in a limited area, it will have little influence upon
the neighbouring areas," Huang said.
At the same time, man-made rainfall has little impact on the local
environment, Huang added.
He made the remarks as concerns seemed to rise over the use of chemicals to
create rain.
Some people fear that the chemicals used may hurt the
environment.
