It’s been a relatively dry summer for Taiwan. No typhoons made landfall this year, which means that the water supply is rather tight. However, that’s not stopping the air force from making a little rain, with the help of good old science.
This ain’t your run-of-the-mill rain dance. Taiwan’s air force is on the move to create some precipitation. But, they have no intention of busting a superstitious move. In fact, they’re going to straight up science Taiwan’s way out of a drought.
Last week, weather reports said that moisture levels in the air were higher than usual. The clouds were full of water, but they weren’t quite ready to precipitate. To the air force, that meant it was prime-time to make it rain. On October 23, the air force loaded a plane with a vat of salt water, took off from Pingtung in Southern Taiwan, and sprayed the clouds with the solution.
Professor of Atmospheric Sciences Yang Ming-jen says that the idea is to saturate the clouds to increase water droplet density. He likens the process to wringing out a wet towel to get a few extra drops of H2O. He says that it can increase precipitation by 10-15%.