Let it Snow! The First Direct Measure of Cloud Seeding | SciShow News

TL;DR

Cloud seeding, a method of weather manipulation, has been shown to be measurable and effective in increasing snowfall. Meanwhile, the discovery of over a thousand 1-billion-year-old green algae fossils sheds light on the evolutionary origins of green plants.

Transcript

[ intro ] If you grew up in a place where it snowed, you might have appreciated snow days. On a cold winter’s morning, you may have found yourself staring longingly at a dark cloud in the distance, wishing it would just dump all its snow so you could skip school and play. Well now, imagine that all of a sudden, you saw a pair of airplanes fly over ... Read More

Key Insights

• 🖤 Cloud seeding has been a method of weather modification for decades, but its effectiveness has been debated due to a lack of reliable measurement techniques.
• 😶‍🌫️ The recent study successfully measured the effectiveness of cloud seeding and showed that it can increase snowfall in dry areas.
• 🤔 Proterocladus fossils, discovered in China, provide evidence that green plants evolved in the sea over a billion years ago, earlier than previously thought.
• 💚 The discovery of ancient green algae fossils contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary origins of green plants.
• 💦 Cloud seeding could be a potential solution for water scarcity, but further research and improvements are needed.
• 😶‍🌫️ The ability to accurately measure the effects of cloud seeding will help determine its feasibility and effectiveness.
• ⛅ The study on cloud seeding highlights the importance of finding reliable methods to assess the impact of weather manipulation techniques.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is cloud seeding and how does it work?

Cloud seeding involves injecting nucleating materials into supercooled clouds to encourage precipitation. These particles provide a surface for water vapor to freeze onto, resulting in snowfall.

Q: How has measuring the effectiveness of cloud seeding been challenging?

Previous methods of comparing snowfall from seeded clouds to natural snowfall were unreliable due to the difficulty of predicting weather conditions. Scientists could not determine the difference in snowfall that would have occurred without seeding.

Q: What did the recent study on cloud seeding reveal?

The study demonstrated that 20 minutes of seeding resulted in 67 minutes of snowfall, covering a large area with a small amount of snow. This measurement provides a more accurate understanding of the effectiveness of cloud seeding.

Q: What did the discovery of Proterocladus fossils reveal about the origins of green plants?

The fossils, estimated to be over a billion years old, had complex branches and root-like structures similar to modern green algae. Their presence in ocean-derived rocks supports the idea that green plants evolved in the sea.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Cloud seeding is a method of encouraging precipitation in dry areas by injecting nucleating materials into supercooled clouds. A study has shown that 20 minutes of seeding resulted in 67 minutes of snowfall, covering 900 square miles with about a tenth of a millimeter of snow.

• The ability to measure the effectiveness of cloud seeding is crucial for its potential use in water scarcity solutions. With this new method, researchers can improve the technique and make informed decisions about its viability.

• In evolutionary biology, the origins of green plants, known as Viridiplantae, have been unclear. A recent discovery of Proterocladus fossils in China, estimated to be over a billion years old, supports the argument that green plants evolved in the sea much earlier than previously thought.