so how does this work? in an interview, maarten ambaum, the lead meteorologist in this research, explained exactly how we can merge the water droplets. 

“as soon as you have electric charge on something, you get a force between them,” he said. “what we’ve shown in our paper is that this force is always positive, as in it’s always attractive. so that is what the paper is really about –– trying to show that this is an all natural circumstance and that charge will always help the drops to attract each other.”

in order to charge up the clouds, the research team has done tests with drones in the united kingdom, but their main goal is to get this working in the united arab emirates in the middle east, where they have a very severe water shortage. the uae is very involved in this research.

“what we’re aiming for is can we make the clouds that they have (in the uae) –– because they have plenty of clouds –– produce more rain. the clouds that they have don’t produce rain, because the middle east is very dusty, however it has what we call it the high aerosol loading. that means that it’s very easy to produce cloud drops there, so as soon as clouds get formed they produce small drops. the problem with small drops is that small drops are not rain, and so the only class that is left really is could we make instead of small drops into big drops,” ambaum said.

many people have their doubts about this research, however. they worry that it is tampering too much with natural processes. however, ambaum assures that this is not creating new rain, but expediting the process of collision coalescence.

“the kind of modification we can achieve of actual weather systems is minimal,” said ambaum. “so what we can hope for with the kind of techniques that we are exploring is that a cloud that is present over a particular area, we might stimulate it to produce a bit more rain or produce rain on a shorter timescale. that is quite far removed from changing the cause of a weather system. i fully agree with the thoughts that it is a shady area in terms of ethics, but i also know what can be achieved with the kind of work that we’re doing. it’s nowhere near geoengineering or weather modification. we’re talking about rainfall enhancement, not weather modification.”

the next steps for ambaum and his team over the next two to three years will be building charging emitters that are suitable to be placed in cloud seeding aircrafts and working on charge injections to make cloud seeding operations more efficient. then, one day, they may be able to help targeted areas that are struggling with droughts or wildfires, changing the way we react to these sorts of disasters.

the internship was nothing less than incredible––i was thrust right into the swing of things as soon as my first day started. that first week, i shadowed a segment that would become the largest part of my internship, “experts on camera”––one-on-one broadcast quality interviews that we arranged between scientists and reporters in order to facilitate conversation and increase availability. we decide on an overarching theme and three subtopics for that month’s round of “eoc,” as we called it, and then go searching for experts to contact. if they accept our invitation to participate, we schedule a 90 minute window, and the reporters simply sign up for a 15 minute slot. on the day of, we jump into a set of questions we come up with for a general video that will be edited and posted on the website for those who couldn’t attend. 

my first round of “eoc,” i edited one of the three videos. the second round, i edited all three videos, as well as helped brainstorm topics and assisted in finding experts. my third round though, i did everything, from deciding on a whole topic and subtopics to finding experts, pitching them to our team, contacting them, writing all promotional material and general video questions, interviewing them, and editing the videos together. 

the biggest challenge that i experienced was that many people didn’t respond, so we always had to be prepared––backups had to be ready to go at all times. for one segment, we went from zero reporters signed up to all four slots being filled in less than 12 hours. it was nerve-wracking, but it was the most rewarding process i’ve ever experienced. i watched myself go from a shadow to successfully leading a whole “eoc” round myself. i can go look at my segments about climate change––specifically species extinction, children’s health effects of wildfire smoke, and agricultural yields––and know that i am the reason they exist and can be reported on more effectively.