Weather Bureau Plans to Combat Smog with Cloud Seeding by 2015

In response to poor air quality in big cities, the China Meteorological Administration has come up with a plan to remove smog with cloud seeding, or the creation of man-made rain, during critical periods, according to The Beijing News.

According to an engineer with the administration, the two major forces that could bring better air quality are wind and rain, but artificial wind is impossible to create at present.

Cloud seeding, which is usually used to combat drought, can be done by planting catalytic agent such as dry ice or silver oxide in the clouds from a plane, to create extra rainfall during already rainy conditions. This method of creating rain has also been used in Beijing to clear the air pattern prior to holidays in order to ensure rain-free skies for special occasions, but not to reduce pollution. The measure is still at the test stage, and experts need to figure out how much extra rainfall is much enough to clean the air.

If this measure works, the administration said it could be a supplementary means to combat smog in many cities in the long term.

Another way to improve urban air is to build a kind of wind control system that could bring in wind and blow away smog, but it requires long-term planning and construction. Observers also argue that such an air passage is not even possible in a city like Beijing, where urban planning was designed to resist cold and wind.

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