UAEREP conducts site visits to Russia, USA, China to assess awardee projects

ABU DHABI- The UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science’s Strategic Direction Committee, SDC, concluded a series of project evaluation site visits to Russia, the USA and China from September to November, 2019, which have been pivotal in assessing the latest progress on four current awardee projects.

The visits started with the evaluation of a project led by Dr. Ali Abshaev, Head of the Weather Modification Laboratory at the High-Mountain Geophysical Institute of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia that took place at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia, from 9th-11th September.

This was followed by a visit to the USA this October, where SDC members met Dr. Paul Lawson of SPEC Incorporated and Professor Eric W. Frew at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, in addition to touring Droplet Measurement Technologies.

The review team members also paid a visit to the Beijing Weather Modification Office’s Cloud Laboratory and Observation Utility Deployment Base in Beijing, China, from 4th to 6th November, where they met with Dr. Lulin Xue, Chief Scientist at Hua Xin Chuang Zhi Science and Technology LLC and member of the Beijing Weather Modification Office advisory panel. Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, Director of the National Centre of Meteorology and President of the Regional Association II (Asia) of the World Meteorological Organisation, said, "We are very keen to follow up on the progress of our awardees to ensure that their projects are on track to achieve their objectives in terms of research output quality and project timeline. Our support for these projects demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the sustainability of water resources in the UAE and building global research networks to serve the common cause of water security around the world."

Alya Al Mazroui, Director of the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science, said, "The review team provides the correct direction towards positioning the programme as a global hub, enhancing its positive impact on capacity building, and expanding its global network in the rain enhancement field. We are confident that our awardee projects will reinforce the status of the UAE as an international centre of excellence for rain enhancement research." Dr. Abshaev is working on a project that seeks to leverage solar radiation to stimulate artificial updrafts through a custom-designed device and a smoke heat machine for creating an aerosol cloud that is currently undergoing testing in Russia. Professor Frew is developing an unmanned aircraft system that employs custom-made sensors and is due to be tested in 2020.

The system aims to gather in-situ, real-time data to sense and target suitable clouds for using unmanned aerial vehicles over the UAE. Dr. Lawson’s project is studying the natural secondary ice nucleation processes in the cold parts of the clouds, specifying the types of cumulus clouds for launching the ice nucleation process and validating the hygroscopic seeding material used in cloud augmentation during the cloud seeding process.

The objective of Dr. Xue’s project is to quantify the effects of cloud seeding on clouds, rainfall and groundwater in the UAE over a historic 10-year period. The project will also provide a design for a new state-of-the-art mixed-phase aerosol-cloud chamber for the UAE to research cloud physics, aerosol-cloud interaction, and weather modification.