Swiss Researchers Try to Make it Rain With Lasers

formaggio writes "Last year a team of researchers at Switzerland's University of Geneva had come up with an interesting way of making it rain– by shooting lasers high up into the sky. At the time it seemed like science fiction, but now they are one step closer after the team successfully finished tests around Lake Geneva. From the article: 'Records from 133 hours of firings revealed that intense pulses of laser light created nitric acid particles in the air that behaved like atmospheric glue, binding water molecules together into droplets and preventing them from re-evaporating. Within seconds, these grew into stable drops a few thousandths of a millimeter in diameter: too small to fall as rain, but large enough to encourage the scientists to press on with the work.'"

Comments

Re:cosmic rays from the sun

[Sockatume]

Wrong.

Your version of the story is not getting much press because it's not true.

Re:Is this safe?

[Sockatume]

Compounds like nitric acid act as nucleation sites for rain already. It'd be no more acidic than natural precipitation.