A novel catalyst of warm-cloud seeding to enhance precipitation

Abstract

Water is necessary for sustaining human life. In many regions of the world, traditional water sources cannot meet increasing water demands. Warm-cloud seeding is an efficient way to augment water supplies. In this paper, we explore two new hygroscopicity catalysts: Poly acrylamide (PAM) and Sodium polyacrylate (PAAS). We designed a series of experiments to investigate the effects of these catalysts together with common catalyst salt powder (NaCl). The experiment was held in a cloud chamber built in our laboratory. The results show that: 1) Catalysed by NaCl, a dose of 0.91g/m3 can obtain the best precipitation efficiency and enhancement rate at 70.8% and 142%, respectively; 2) A 1.36g/m3 dose catalysed by PAM and PAAS exhibits optimal performance at 76.7% and 70.4% precipitation efficiency, respectively; 3) Under the same conditions, PAM shows better catalytic effects than NaCl does.