The Loeki's Strange Omniverse
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HailStop
posted Monday, 4 July 2005
It turns out there's a device in a farmers village nearby which is supposed to protect crops and fruit treas.
So far I've only heard it from hear-say, but it is certainly true (the story was related to me a few hundred metres from our the location at that time) and it seems to work too!
What does it do? The ones telling me didn't know, the story came up because the machine had been "banging" all night. Those bangs, coming from a big hole in a container, seem somehow capable of preventing hail from falling from the clouds.
The area this device is in used to have a lot of hailfall, destroying harvests, costing millions of euros and generally caused a lot of dismay.
The only problem these days is that on a stormy night these bangs sound through the air, sometimes keeping citizens and children awake ;-)
But what the motherfloppin' hell? Are we already capable of (consciously) affecting the weather?!?
I have yet to check it out myself, which I will soon enough, but it is extremely fascinating.
After some scouring on the internet I found this company HailStop, who actually produce and sell machines who can do this!
As you can see below the entire system, utilizing carefully aimed gaseous explosions, is meant to send positive ions up into the highest echelons of cumulonimbus clouds, in order to get the suspended and freezing waterdrops moving again.
Because of this, they don't get any opportunity to form ice crystals and therefore no hail occurs.
It turns out I already heard about it before, but I didn't expect to find such a device so nearby and even hear that it even works as well! Because let's be honest, this really is the stuff of science fiction!
So far I've only heard it from hear-say, but it is certainly true (the story was related to me a few hundred metres from our the location at that time) and it seems to work too!
What does it do? The ones telling me didn't know, the story came up because the machine had been "banging" all night. Those bangs, coming from a big hole in a container, seem somehow capable of preventing hail from falling from the clouds.
The area this device is in used to have a lot of hailfall, destroying harvests, costing millions of euros and generally caused a lot of dismay.
The only problem these days is that on a stormy night these bangs sound through the air, sometimes keeping citizens and children awake ;-)
But what the motherfloppin' hell? Are we already capable of (consciously) affecting the weather?!?
I have yet to check it out myself, which I will soon enough, but it is extremely fascinating.
After some scouring on the internet I found this company HailStop, who actually produce and sell machines who can do this!
As you can see below the entire system, utilizing carefully aimed gaseous explosions, is meant to send positive ions up into the highest echelons of cumulonimbus clouds, in order to get the suspended and freezing waterdrops moving again.
Because of this, they don't get any opportunity to form ice crystals and therefore no hail occurs.
It turns out I already heard about it before, but I didn't expect to find such a device so nearby and even hear that it even works as well! Because let's be honest, this really is the stuff of science fiction!
Say something!