Modeling cloud seeding technology for rain enhancement over the arid and semiarid areas of Ethiopia

Megbar Wondie

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14974

Modeling cloud seeding technology for rain enhancement over the arid and semiarid areas of Ethiopia

Heliyon. 2023 Mar 29;9(4):e14974. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14974. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Author

Megbar Wondie¹

Affiliation

¹ Atmospheric Physics Research Division, Department of Physics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.

Abstract

The government of Ethiopia has started exploring different innovative approaches to tackle the scarcity of water in arid and semi-arid regions of the country. In line with this strategy, precipitation enhancement through weather modification technology is getting strong attention and some initial attempts have been made to assess its feasibility. Therefore, this paper aims to model cloud-seeding technology for rain enhancement and check its effectiveness in arid and semiarid regions of Ethiopia. Different relevant measurements including ground-based as well as reanalysis data from 2021 to 2022 are used to improve relevant cloud-seeded models. Reanalysis data are validated with ground-based data using different error metrics. The improved cloud-seeded modeling is developed for precipitation enhancement for the arid and semiarid regions of Ethiopia. An atmospheric moisture budget is used for improving the cloud-seeded model. The results indicated that the developed model and the direct operation are well agreed upon. The relative precipitation (RP) (after the application of cloud-seeded per before the application of cloud-seeded during spring, summer, and autumn is found 1.31, 0.98, and 1.03 respectively. The changing precipitation between cloud seeded and before seeded for spring, summer, and autumn is found at 1.38, -0.19, and 0.11 mm respectively; whereas changing temperature is found at 1.08, 1.78, and -1.06 k respectively. In general, the model result indicated that cloud-seeded technology is effective over Ethiopia when the daily resultant wind speed is less than 1.5 m/s and cloud base height (CBH) is less than 1700 m. Furthermore, by observing RP from the improved cloud-seeded model results, rain enhancement science is applicable for Ethiopia during the spring and slightly autumn seasons. Hence, before artificial aerosol is seeded into the cloud, the operators should be nowcast and forecast the daily wind speed and CBH of the target area unless an economic crisis will have happened.

Keywords: Cloud-seeded model; Cloud-seeded operation; Rain enhancement.