In a gold-trimmed command center on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, scientists are seeking to wring moisture from desert skies.
This is called cloud seeding. It’s one of hundreds of missions that United Arab Emirates pilot Mark Newman and his fellow pilots will fly this year as part of the UAE’s ambitious, decade-long attempt to increase rainfall in its desert lands. And each mission can cost as much as $8,000.
More than 50 countries have dabbled in cloud seeding since the 1940s—to combat droughts, refill hydroelectric reservoirs, keep ski slopes snowy, or even use them as a weapon of war. In recent years, there’s been a new surge of interest, partly due to scientific breakthroughs, but also because countries are facing the early impacts of climate change.
WIRED went on a mission to uncover whether this new wave of cloud seeding is the first step toward a world where we really can control the weather, or another round of literal vaporware.
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By Amit Katwala
In a gold-trimmed command center on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, scientists are seeking to wring moisture from desert skies.
This is called cloud seeding. It’s one of hundreds of missions that United Arab Emirates pilot Mark Newman and his fellow pilots will fly this year as part of the UAE’s ambitious, decade-long attempt to increase rainfall in its desert lands. And each mission can cost as much as $8,000.
More than 50 countries have dabbled in cloud seeding since the 1940s—to combat droughts, refill hydroelectric reservoirs, keep ski slopes snowy, or even use them as a weapon of war. In recent years, there’s been a new surge of interest, partly due to scientific breakthroughs, but also because countries are facing the early impacts of climate change.
WIRED went on a mission to uncover whether this new wave of cloud seeding is the first step toward a world where we really can control the weather, or another round of literal vaporware.
Read The Big Story: [https://www.wired.com/story/new-gods-weather-rain-cloud-seeding-emirates/](https://www.wired.com/story/new-gods-weather-rain-cloud-seeding-emirates/)