| Session Details | |
| Section | AS - Atmospheric Sciences |
| Session Title | Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Weather Modification Experiments in Asia and Oceania |
| Main Convener | Dr. Venkateswara Rao Bekkam (JNT University, Hyderabad, India) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Rosenfeld Daniel (The Hebrew University, Israel) Dr. J.R. Kulkarni (Scientist E, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, India) |
| Session Description | The effects of aerosols and clouds on the atmosphere, climate, and public health are among the central topics in current atmospheric and environmental research. The qualitative and quantitative understanding and predictability of aerosols, clouds, and precipitation processes, interactions, and effects in the climate system are, however, very limited. In view of the potential impacts of anthropogenic aerosols and greenhouse gases on present and future extreme weather events such as Droughts, Floods, Hail Storms and Cyclones, there is a necessity of understanding of ability to affect beneficially Weather Modification for mitigating some of the detrimental impacts and to cope with the water scarcity. Operational Cloud seeding Programmes are being carried out in more than 25 countries all over the world, most of them with some scientific basis. Several cloud seeding experiments have been carried out in Asia and elsewhere on the globe like in China, Thailand, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Saudi-Arabia, Australia, and most recently the Cloud seeding Experiment and Cloud Aerosol Interaction & Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) in India. In this context, it is necessary to take stock of the situation in understanding the basis for advertent weather modification by cloud seeding. This includes understanding cloud aerosol interactions, formation, dissipation and life cycles of the clouds, role of Aerosols as Cloud Condensation Nuclei, and Regional Weather Forecasting Techniques. Developments in Weather Modification Techniques for Precipitation Enhancement, Hail Suppression and Fog Dissipation with the associated development of suitable seeding agents and devices needs to be assessed. Developments in In-situ aircraft measurements and remote sensing by Radar, Lidar and Satellites are the tools available to us for documenting the evolution of clouds and precipitation and their dependence on aerosols. Developments in Evaluation of weather modification techniques involving various cloud physics techniques on Radar, Lidar, Satellites, ground based Rainfall measurements,and Cloud Modeling are to be reviewed. Statistical methods to analyze the physical responses are sensitive to biases and misrepresentation, so that their proper practice will be also discussed. In view of this, a session namely "Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Weather Modification Experiments in Asia and Oceania" is being convened at AOGS 2010 at Hyderabad keeping in the back ground that the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India has been carrying out cloud seeding operations for rainfall enhancement for the last seven years with an some scientific basis, which is probably one of the longest and largest programs of South East Asia. This is one of the motivations for the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India under the aegis of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology taking up one of the biggest experiment namely CAIPEEX. Therefore Research Papers are invited in the above mentioned and related fields indicating the latest advances, practical experiences, new research findings from various experiments throughout the globe. |