CHINA — The Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is planning to send rain-inducing machines across the Tibetan Plateau to increase rainfall in the region.
Tens of thousands of machines will be installed on the Tibetan mountains and is expected to increase rainfall by up to 10 billion cubic meters a year over an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, reports the South China Morning Post.
The machines will produce fine silver iodide particles which would then be lifted into the air with the winds.These particles will then be circulated into the atmosphere.
Each rain machine is expected to create a 4.8-kilometer-long strip of clouds.
Lei Fanpei, the president of the corporation, told the South China Post that modifying Tibet's weather "is a critical innovation to solve China's water shortage problem."
The mountains of Tibet provide a huge source of water in China as its glaciers and underground reservoirs supply water to the Yangtze, Mekong and the Yellow River.
However, this isn't the first time China made plans to modify the weather. The country has manipulated the weather during the 2008 Beijing Olympics in order to prevent it from raining during the event.
China had even artificially induced snow a couple of years ago in Beijing, according to a report from China Daily.
China plans to monitor the system through weather satellites and supplement silver iodide particles from planes and drones in order to maximize its effect.
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