The rainmaking drone: a revolutionary process that awakens old fears in the United States

Seeding Clouds

It involves drones, state-of-the-art radars, and two young French engineers. “The goal, quite simply, is to target those clouds we see above us, send the drone and then do what is called cloud seeding,” explains one of them, Lucas Coupu-Moison, on TF1. “Seeding a cloud” means forcing it to empty the water it contains. For this, no magical incantation is needed, just the need to fly high enough in the sky to spread a handful of powder. “We have 150 grams of silver iodide and with that, we will be able to produce 6 million liters of water through rain or snow. It is practically imperceptible afterward in the water,” completes the other French engineer, Louis Mounier.

The technique has been known since the mid-20th century. So far, planes were used to fly into the clouds. But these releases were too costly and too imprecise to provide a viable solution to drought. Three years ago, the Californian start-up Rainmaker brought cloud seeding back into the spotlight. With data analyzed by artificial intelligence and above all without the need to launch any aircraft. “It’s almost real-time. Once the drone is in the air and seeding begins, the cloud freezes in a few moments and precipitation starts a few minutes later,” describes Augustus Doricko.