Why UAE climate scientists have their heads in the clouds

DUBAI: Artificial intelligence and “the cloud” seem to be everywhere these days — now scientists in the UAE are putting them together in an attempt to increase the country’s minuscule 100mm annual rainfall.

A three-year project funded with $1.5 million from the UAE’s rain enhancement program will feed satellite, radar and weather data into an algorithm that predicts where seedable clouds will form in the next six hours. It promises to improve on the current method of cloud-seeding flights directed by human experts studying satellite images.
Cloud seeding, using planes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds, can increase rainfall by up to 15 percent — but it works only with certain types of puffy, cumulus clouds, and can even suppress rainfall if not done properly.
“You’ve got to do it in the right place at the right time. That’s why we use artificial intelligence,” said Luca Delle Monache, a climate scientist at the University of California San Diego.