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China Launches Artificial Rainfall Program in Arid Northwest Plateau
China has launched a new artificial rainfall program in northwest China's Qinghai Plateau.
Upon completion of the program it is predicted that the plateau's rainfall may increase by 15 percent to 30 percent.
An official with the Qinghai Provincial Office for Artificial Rainfall said a detailed construction plan for the project to increase rainfall through artificial means in northwest China, jointly undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences and the Qinghai Provincial Meteorological Bureau, has passed an appraisal by a panel of experts in Beijing.
In accordance with that plan, Qinghai Province, where China's three major rivers, the Yellow, Yangtze and Lancang, originate from, is listed as the first central base for carrying out a plan to turn cloud resources in the sky into rainwater.
Qinghai has already carried out its own four-year-long scheme to utilize water resources in the sky and has added about five billion cu m of rainwater in areas where the scheme is being implemented, said the official.
The new program will require the building of a state artificial rainfall information analysis center and a plane lab in Beijing, as well as construction of stations for meteorology, hydrology, topography, ecology in Qinghai Province and outdoor operations bases at the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
The entire program will cost 23 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars).
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