Method Of Weather Modification In South Eastern Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Weather modification is the effort of man to change naturally occurring weather, for the benefit of someone. The best-known kind of weather modification is cloud seeding, with the goal of producing rain or snow, suppressing hail (which can ruin crops), or weakening hurricanes.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRCT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• AIM/OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
• PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
• LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
• ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY
• DEFINITION OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0      LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE STUDY
2.1      HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
2.2     DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEATHER MODIFICATION

2.3     REVIEW OF SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA

CHAPTER THREE

3.0      METHODOLOGY

3.1      RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.2     RESEARCH DESIGN

3.3      SOURCE OF DATA

• POPULATION
• DETERMINATION OF SAMPLES
• DESCRIPTION OF DATA TECHNIQUES
• LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
• METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0       RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1        MATERIALS AND METHODS

4.2         RESULT

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1      SUMMARY

5.2      REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                        INTRODUCTION

Weather Modification, commonly known as cloud seeding, is the application of scientific technology that can enhance a cloud’s ability to produce precipitation. Weather Modification, Inc., is on the forefront of scientific technology to maximize water availability worldwide. Application of scientific concepts and extensive scientific experimentation has proven that cloud seeding increases the amount of precipitation.

Humans have long sought to purposefully alter such atmospheric phenomena as clouds, rain, snow, hail, lightning, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones. Magical and religious practices to control the weather are attested in a variety of cultures, thousands of years before the modern era.

The modern era of scientific weather modification began in 1946 with work by Vincent J. Schaefer and Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Research Laboratories in Schenectady, New York. Schaefer discovered that when dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) pellets were dropped into a cloud composed of water droplets in a deep-freeze box, the droplets were rapidly replaced by ice crystals, which increased in size and then fell to the bottom of the box. The Schaefer-Langmuir experiments demonstrated that so-called supercooled clouds, namely those composed of water droplets at temperatures below freezing, could be dissipated. When the supercooled clouds were seeded with grains of dry ice, ice crystals formed and grew large enough to fall out of the clouds. The term used to define this method of weather modification is called cloud seeding.

1.1                                               OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of this work is to highlight the method used intentionally in manipulating or altering the weather in south eastern Nigeria.

1.2                                                PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Weather modification increases rain or snow, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water supply. Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or hurricanes, from occurring; or of provoking damaging weather against an enemy or rival, as a tactic of military or economic warfare.

1.3                                          ADVANTAGES OF THE PROJECT

weather modification or making artificial rain has been applied to many agricultural areas around the world where rain is scarce and badly needed. It is a time-tested way of keeping farmlands to produce crops where an abundant harvest is otherwise difficult or impossible to achieve.

Despite the many years of its existence and continued use, cloud seeding remains a loosely understood concept. We have identified a few advantages, they are as follows:

1. Creates Rain: Where rain is badly needed, cloud seeding is perhaps the only way to produce rain. People use silver iodine to induce rain production in areas where there is barely any precipitation. Rain is important for keeping the area hydrated and fertile for growing crops and other plants.
2. Boosts Economy: Where there is rain, there is farm produce. Farms that yield better can help the local economy and feed the people (and even animals). Cloud seeding can greatly improve the living conditions in dry, arid places.
3. Regulates Weather: Cloud seeding in a way, gives us the ability to control the weather condition in a particular area. It does not just make rain, it also regulates water vapor that in turn prevent damages brought by destructive hails and storms.
4. Makes Dry Places More Livable: Local people have an impressive way of adapting to their natural environment. But inhospitable places rarely visited by rain can be inhospitable to tourists and foreigners. Cloud seeding can make such places livable.

1.4                                   PROBLEM/LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1. Requires Potentially Harmful Chemicals: Chemicals used in cloud seeding can potentially damage the environment, especially the plants cloud seeding is intended to protect. There is no substantial study done on the implications of silver iodine to the environment, so there remains the mystery. Silver iodine may cause “iodism,” a type of iodine poisoning where the patient exhibits running nose, headache, skin rash, anemia, and diarrhea, among others.
2. Is Not Foolproof: Cloud seeding requires rainclouds. It cannot work on just any other cloud formations. Also, seeded clouds may actually travel to another location and do not cause precipitation on the intended location. Therefore, it can be argued whether or not cloud seeding is truly effective in producing rain.
3. Costs a Lot: It is very expensive to produce artificial rain. The chemicals have to be delivered to the air via planes, which are hard to come by in places with very minimal income. Poverty-stricken areas suffering drought or famine may need external funding to have cloud seeding.
4. Poses Weather Problems: If not regulated or controlled properly, cloud seeding may cause undesirable if not altogether destructive weather conditions such as flooding, storms, hail risks, etc. Places that naturally do not get much rain or no rain at all usually do not have the infrastructure to handle so much precipitation. With cloud seeding, these areas may become flooded quickly, causing more harm than good.

weather modification requires substantial research for us to know fully its long-term effects on the environment and on the health of every living organism exposed to artificial rain. It has a couple of benefits, but it also poses certain risks, so it is not a perfect solution for precipitation issues.

1.5                                                  DEFINITION OF TERMS

Cloud —A large mass of condensed moisture consisting of water droplets and/or ice crystals.

Cloud seeding —The introduction of particles of (usually) dry ice or silver iodide with the hope of increasing precipitation from the cloud.

Dry ice —Solid carbon dioxide.

Fog —A cloud whose base lies at or near Earth’s surface.

Hail —A form of precipitation consisting of relatively large masses of ice.

Precipitation —Any form of solid or liquid water that reaches the ground from the atmosphere.

Supercooled —Water than exists in a liquid state at temperatures below 32°F(0°C).

Ester in 1961, Hurricane Beulah in 1963, and Hurricane Debbie in 1969, among others. At its most effective, the seeding process appears to have reduced hurricane winds by as much as 30%.