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Londoners are accustomed to foggy weather and dark clouds that appear in winter. But in early December, 1952, the fog of city residents have been fatal.
At that time 14,000 people died and 150,000 have suffered respiratory infections. In the long term, it is estimated that about 12,000 people died from the effects of fog in that month. Also, the animals were affected.
Still had less reason to take issue with the cerccetători, but a new study tried to find out what was actually behind this event. A team of Chinese scientists, American and British bred in the lab fog and compared it with records from weather conditions in 2 cities highly polluted in China, Beijing and Xi`an.
Sulfates are a key component of fog in London, giving her features making it toxic and smelly. Thus, it is fair to say that London fog is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide by stacks of housing or from industry. However, the sulfur dioxide is converted to sulfuric acid remains a mystery.
"The results show that this process is facilitated by nitrogen dioxide, another compound emitted by smokestacks, which takes the form of fog," said one of the team, Renyi Zhang of the University of Texas. "Another key issue in terms of conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfates is that it produces acid particles, which have an important role in this process. Natural mist is made up of extremely small particles and diluted acid is formed. Evaporation of all these particles leave behind acid mist particles covering the city, "he added.
"We believe we have succeeded in solving the mystery of the strange phenomenon that took place in London in 1952 and also China have offered some ideas on how to increase air quality. Reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia interrupt the process of formation of sulfates, "concluded the researchers.
Story source:
IFL Science
Increased levels of drought and extreme natural phenomena have forced the Chinese to invest 30 million dollars for this technology to control the weather.
China has allocated 199 million yuan (29.76 million dollars) to create technology that wants to control the weather, new technology is part of of drought and natural disaster reduction.
Finance Minister provided details about the project earlier this month, after local media announced that this year's floods have caused 237 deaths. It said the new funds were allocated to help regions in China to better survive extreme natural phenomena such as heavy flooding in central and southern regions and drought in the northwest.
China currently uses the technology of weather modification, including cloud seeding to induce rain during droughts or reduce hail, but also to create a favorable weather during special events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.
China should use this technology to create over 60 billion cubic meters of water by 2020. A similar technology was developed by a team of researchers from Nevada, they want to control the weather using a drone. Engineers and meteorologists said they had created the first standalone platform that seeded the clouds, it can increase rainfall by 15%.
The machine can create clouds by spraying fine particles of silver iodide into clouds to increase existing levels of precipitation.
Drone engineers and researchers from Desert Research Institute, and the American Drone AviSight allied to create drone incorporating a system of seeding clouds.
Richards, President Drone America, said the project will provide ,, a solution sprayed into the air that can bring people relief from dry areas ''. Although this is the first drone seeded clouds is not the first time such technology is used. Last year in Arizona, plans were unveiled creating artificial rain by spraying the plane silver iodate. The inventors believe that the new technology will help to prevent the worst climate change.
The process of seeding clouds was first proposed in 1940 in the laboratories of General Electric in Schenectady, New York. Twenty years later, Central Arizona Project and Salt River Project have started investigations to bring the project to reality.
Since 2007, the Central Arizona Project has invested one million dollars in research to other countries to increase the water supply from the Colorado River System operates on the premise that rains occur when water droplets grow to become ice crystals.
They become too heavy to remain suspended in the air and often fall melting until they touch the ground.
The water in dry areas can be air, turned into ice crystals in the atmosphere by spraying some chemicals, such as dry ice or silver iodate.
Some researchers worry that silver from the air may lodge in the Basin. Also, they are concerned about how they will decide who can benefit from this project. Compared to other alternatives, such as desalination of sea water, creating clouds is a much cheaper alternative, although it will not only be able to combat drought.
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