February 04, 2021
Chinese scientists say they used sound waves to increase rainfall over the Tibetan plateau by up to 17 per cent.
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Powerful, low-frequency sound waves could be used to trigger rainfall in areas that suffer from drought, according to a study by researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
In a weather manipulation experiment conducted on the Tibetan Plateau last year, the researchers said they recorded increases in rainfall of up to 17 per cent by pointing a giant loudspeaker at the sky.
“The total annual atmospheric water vapour resource in China is about 20 trillion tonnes. [But] only 20 per cent forms natural precipitation that reaches the ground, and the precipitation conversion rate in western regions is even smaller,” said the team led by Professor Wang Guangqian from the university’s State Key Laboratory of Hydro-science and Engineering.