From today's 'Bangkok Post':
Rain-making efforts pay off in wide areas
CHAIWAT SADYAEM
Prachuap Khiri Khan _ Rain-making operations, directed by the rain-making centre in Hua Hin district, have brought ample rain to two water retention zones in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan and nearby areas.
Watana Sukanchanaset, director of Hua Hin rain-making operations centre, yesterday called a meeting of academics, pilots and staff at the centre in Hua Hin district, Prachuap Khiri Khan, to evaluate their operations.
According to the meeting, it was raining on Tuesday in 10 provinces where 10 rain-making centres were located.
The centre in Hua Hin sent four aircraft to make rain in Kui Buri district and Sam Roi Yot subdistrict of Prachuap Khiri Khan, and Kaeng Krachan district of Phetchaburi all day Tuesday.
They spread enough chemicals to bring rainfall to Pran Buri dam's water-holding area (56.5mm of rainwater), Kaeng Krachan dam's water retention area (46.8mm of rainwater) and Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district. Tuesday's operations were carried out in line with His Majesty the King's advice and included two Super Sandwich operations at 20,000 feet or more to generate natural rain.
The meeting also came up with regulations to ensure safety for reporters wanting to board rain-making aircraft.
Yesterday morning, five aircraft were sent from the centre to operate above seaside river basins in Prachuap Khiri Khan and sprinkle rain-making substances at 4,500-6,000 feet above Kui Buri and Pran Buri districts and Sam Roi Yot subdistrict all day.
Humidity was lower than for the day before. However, no rainfall was reported in these areas yesterday.
M.L. Jitithewal Devakul, a pilot attached to Hua Hin rain-making operation centre, said intensive training on rain-making techniques following His Majesty's advice was proving useful.
Pilots learned about the ''provoking, enlarging and attacking clouds'' procedure and the Super Sandwich technique, which brought Tuesday's welcome rains.
Hua Hin rain-making centre starts to succeed
Hua Hin rain-making centre starts to succeed
The Hua Hin Residents' Club,
for everyone who calls Hua Hin home.
(yahoo.com/group/huahinresidents/)
for everyone who calls Hua Hin home.
(yahoo.com/group/huahinresidents/)
Hua Hin's rainmaking goes from strength to strength
From Asia Times Online
Thailand's royal rainmaking
By Sara Schonhardt
HUA HIN, Thailand - Thick clouds gather in the night sky, passing over an orange full moon and spreading out to block the coming daylight. It is approaching hot season in Thailand - not a time for storms. But the skies have turned an unseasonable gray, and the sporadic sound of thunder ushers in the rains.
Thailand is suffering from one of the worst droughts in its recent history. Usable water stored in major dams across the country is 6% below last year's level, and water levels in the country's hardest-hit northeastern region are at their lowest ever.
Water in the country's major rivers has also fallen below record lows. The portion of the Moon River that flows through Buri Ram, for example, is 44 centimeters below the lowest level recorded in 2003, the last year Thailand experienced a major drought.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has expressed concern that the country's gross domestic product will be affected by the water shortage. The world's largest rice exporter has already had to cut back on exports, revising this year's export estimate by 15% to 8.5 million tonnes.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) estimated that drought-induced losses have already exceeded 14 billion baht (US$359 million), including 7.4 billion baht in damage to the agricultural sector and 7 billion baht in relief operation costs.
Other countries in the Mekong River region, such as Cambodia and Vietnam, are also suffering from drought. Thailand, however, appears to have one significant advantage over its neighbors: artificial rainmaking.
A royal response
In an effort to stimulate rain in the country's worst-hit areas, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is personally overseeing operations at a special Royal Rainmaking Center, expanding a unique cloud-seeding technique he patented in 2002 that could save the country millions of dollars in damage.
Last month, the NRE reported that drought had hit 44,519 villages in 71 provinces, affecting more than 11 million people and severely scaling back agricultural production. The fields in most areas are brown and baked. The soil is cracked and blistered and mountain forests have little vegetation.
Hua Hin, in Prachuap Khiri Khan province about 200 kilometers south of Bangkok, has not escaped unscathed. The city is the site of the Royal Rainmaking Center, where planes take off at least three times daily in an effort to stimulate rain. And the situation seems to be improving.
Pilot Monthon Chawkhowang said moderate rain has been recorded in areas around Nakhon Ratchasima, Surin and Buri Ram - all towns in the northeast. The center in Hua Hin, one of eight main artificial-rainmaking bases in the country, is targeting Prachuap Khiri Khan province, but the Royal Rainmaking Department's current objective is to stimulate rain in the country's hardest-hit areas, the 19 northeastern provinces.
Hua Hin's five planes - two small Caravans, two larger Casa aircraft and one King Air, which flies at an altitude of about 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) - take to the sky between three and four times a day, depending on the weather, said Monthon.
The center's target area is Kaeng Krachan Reservoir, which has risen 1 million cubic meters since operations were increased last month, according to Monthon. With a capacity of 710 million cubic meters, the water level remains low, though. While flying overhead, the view from the plane's windows reveals a patchwork of brown fields surrounding the reservoir, which is ringed by a line of brown that reveals how far water levels are down.
Formula for success
The cloud-seeding technique involves the use of chemicals, such as sodium chloride or silver iodine, which are released into clouds to stimulate rainfall. The King began testing the process for which he holds the patent three decades ago. Hua Hin is the original base where these techniques were first used.
The process involves two separate steps - one that seeds warm clouds, and another for cold clouds - and is said to be particularly successful in that it can more precisely target areas where the rain is to fall. Though it is not patented for use outside Thailand, other countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines have expressed interest in learning the details of the King's technique, and teams have been sent there to discuss training methods.
This past Saturday, the aircraft in Hua Hin were sent out three times, at 9am, 10am and then again at 2pm. The first and second rounds included the four lower-flying aircraft, while the third round added the King Air. This last process is called the "Super Sandwich" technique and targets both hot and cold air clouds at different altitudes.
During this process, the King Air shoots silver iodine into cold-air clouds at 20,000 feet, while the small planes fly below and release one of six chemical formulas that stimulate the air mass upwind of the target area to rise and form rain clouds. The type of formula used depends on a variety of factors, such as weather, cloud type, altitude and time of day.
Soldiers from the army have been brought in to mix the chemicals and load them on to the planes. Each plane has at least two pilots, a radio technician, two workers from the aviation and rainmaking department who deal with the chemicals, and a coordinator who relays information between the center and the palace.
The pilots fly into target clouds based on forecasting information that the King Air collects. It takes about 30 minutes to release the 1,000-1,200 kilograms of chemicals that within only minutes on Saturday had already begun working. Black clouds gathered over Kaeng Krachan and rain began to fall before the plane had even hit the ground. Sometimes the team is lucky, Monthon said. Other times the process takes much longer, or doesn't have an effect at all.
Rain, rain all around
Between seven and 10 tons of chemicals were released on Saturday in Hua Hin alone. The operation has nearly doubled since the center was declared ahead of rainmaking operations.
Over the past month, 10 new sub-stations also have been established to help with cloud-seeding operations. They are temporary bases and will cease operation once the drought is under control, said Prinya Sudhikoses, with the Agriculture Ministry's Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation. Cloud seeding, however, will continue throughout the year.
Rainmaking operations occur every year in line with the rainmaking department's annual operations plan, the budget for which is set at about 1 billion baht ($25 million).
"We prepare for a situation like this every year," said Wathana Sukarnjanaset, director of the Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation. Tasked with heading the center in Hua Hin, he admitted that the situation this year was worse than in the past, but said the ministry had taken that into account and was adjusting its resources accordingly.
More people have been brought in to staff the center, but with operations increasing indefinitely, many more people need to be trained. The department could even face a labor shortage as the work has increased but the number of people in the department has remained the same, Prinya said.
It is an around-the-clock job. People such as Prinya come in for the morning briefing around 8am and stay until late in the evening. During the morning briefing, they assess the previous day's developments and discuss the current weather outlook. They use this information to determine what type of chemical formulas will be used for the day ahead.
In addition to the cloud-seeding operations, about 6,000 wells are being drilled in rural communities to provide temporary relief, and soldiers in Thailand's northeastern region have established 11 emergency stations to speed up the distribution of water to local drought victims, northeastern army chief Lieutenant-General Hern Wannaprasert was quoted by local media as saying.
If rains don't start in May and the dry spell extends to the start of July, the drought could cost the country at least 56 billion baht, according to a recently released forecast from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
The university's Center for Economic and Business Forecasting said the country's agricultural sector has already been hit hard by the drought. Huge swaths of rice fields are expected to be devastated, followed by sugarcane and maize, according to the government's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
But positive signs are starting to register. Rainmaking operations in Hua Hin have brought ample rain to two water-retention zones in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan provinces. And rainmaking operations, which are conducting between 40 and 60 cloud-seeding flights per day around the country, have eased the drought situation in 37 provinces.
For now Wathana remains wary of making comments about the long-term outcome of the artificial rainmaking efforts. "But so far the result is convincing," he said. "It has started raining in the target areas."
Sara Schonhardt is a regional editor for Asia Times Online.
Thailand's royal rainmaking
By Sara Schonhardt
HUA HIN, Thailand - Thick clouds gather in the night sky, passing over an orange full moon and spreading out to block the coming daylight. It is approaching hot season in Thailand - not a time for storms. But the skies have turned an unseasonable gray, and the sporadic sound of thunder ushers in the rains.
Thailand is suffering from one of the worst droughts in its recent history. Usable water stored in major dams across the country is 6% below last year's level, and water levels in the country's hardest-hit northeastern region are at their lowest ever.
Water in the country's major rivers has also fallen below record lows. The portion of the Moon River that flows through Buri Ram, for example, is 44 centimeters below the lowest level recorded in 2003, the last year Thailand experienced a major drought.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has expressed concern that the country's gross domestic product will be affected by the water shortage. The world's largest rice exporter has already had to cut back on exports, revising this year's export estimate by 15% to 8.5 million tonnes.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) estimated that drought-induced losses have already exceeded 14 billion baht (US$359 million), including 7.4 billion baht in damage to the agricultural sector and 7 billion baht in relief operation costs.
Other countries in the Mekong River region, such as Cambodia and Vietnam, are also suffering from drought. Thailand, however, appears to have one significant advantage over its neighbors: artificial rainmaking.
A royal response
In an effort to stimulate rain in the country's worst-hit areas, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is personally overseeing operations at a special Royal Rainmaking Center, expanding a unique cloud-seeding technique he patented in 2002 that could save the country millions of dollars in damage.
Last month, the NRE reported that drought had hit 44,519 villages in 71 provinces, affecting more than 11 million people and severely scaling back agricultural production. The fields in most areas are brown and baked. The soil is cracked and blistered and mountain forests have little vegetation.
Hua Hin, in Prachuap Khiri Khan province about 200 kilometers south of Bangkok, has not escaped unscathed. The city is the site of the Royal Rainmaking Center, where planes take off at least three times daily in an effort to stimulate rain. And the situation seems to be improving.
Pilot Monthon Chawkhowang said moderate rain has been recorded in areas around Nakhon Ratchasima, Surin and Buri Ram - all towns in the northeast. The center in Hua Hin, one of eight main artificial-rainmaking bases in the country, is targeting Prachuap Khiri Khan province, but the Royal Rainmaking Department's current objective is to stimulate rain in the country's hardest-hit areas, the 19 northeastern provinces.
Hua Hin's five planes - two small Caravans, two larger Casa aircraft and one King Air, which flies at an altitude of about 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) - take to the sky between three and four times a day, depending on the weather, said Monthon.
The center's target area is Kaeng Krachan Reservoir, which has risen 1 million cubic meters since operations were increased last month, according to Monthon. With a capacity of 710 million cubic meters, the water level remains low, though. While flying overhead, the view from the plane's windows reveals a patchwork of brown fields surrounding the reservoir, which is ringed by a line of brown that reveals how far water levels are down.
Formula for success
The cloud-seeding technique involves the use of chemicals, such as sodium chloride or silver iodine, which are released into clouds to stimulate rainfall. The King began testing the process for which he holds the patent three decades ago. Hua Hin is the original base where these techniques were first used.
The process involves two separate steps - one that seeds warm clouds, and another for cold clouds - and is said to be particularly successful in that it can more precisely target areas where the rain is to fall. Though it is not patented for use outside Thailand, other countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines have expressed interest in learning the details of the King's technique, and teams have been sent there to discuss training methods.
This past Saturday, the aircraft in Hua Hin were sent out three times, at 9am, 10am and then again at 2pm. The first and second rounds included the four lower-flying aircraft, while the third round added the King Air. This last process is called the "Super Sandwich" technique and targets both hot and cold air clouds at different altitudes.
During this process, the King Air shoots silver iodine into cold-air clouds at 20,000 feet, while the small planes fly below and release one of six chemical formulas that stimulate the air mass upwind of the target area to rise and form rain clouds. The type of formula used depends on a variety of factors, such as weather, cloud type, altitude and time of day.
Soldiers from the army have been brought in to mix the chemicals and load them on to the planes. Each plane has at least two pilots, a radio technician, two workers from the aviation and rainmaking department who deal with the chemicals, and a coordinator who relays information between the center and the palace.
The pilots fly into target clouds based on forecasting information that the King Air collects. It takes about 30 minutes to release the 1,000-1,200 kilograms of chemicals that within only minutes on Saturday had already begun working. Black clouds gathered over Kaeng Krachan and rain began to fall before the plane had even hit the ground. Sometimes the team is lucky, Monthon said. Other times the process takes much longer, or doesn't have an effect at all.
Rain, rain all around
Between seven and 10 tons of chemicals were released on Saturday in Hua Hin alone. The operation has nearly doubled since the center was declared ahead of rainmaking operations.
Over the past month, 10 new sub-stations also have been established to help with cloud-seeding operations. They are temporary bases and will cease operation once the drought is under control, said Prinya Sudhikoses, with the Agriculture Ministry's Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation. Cloud seeding, however, will continue throughout the year.
Rainmaking operations occur every year in line with the rainmaking department's annual operations plan, the budget for which is set at about 1 billion baht ($25 million).
"We prepare for a situation like this every year," said Wathana Sukarnjanaset, director of the Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation. Tasked with heading the center in Hua Hin, he admitted that the situation this year was worse than in the past, but said the ministry had taken that into account and was adjusting its resources accordingly.
More people have been brought in to staff the center, but with operations increasing indefinitely, many more people need to be trained. The department could even face a labor shortage as the work has increased but the number of people in the department has remained the same, Prinya said.
It is an around-the-clock job. People such as Prinya come in for the morning briefing around 8am and stay until late in the evening. During the morning briefing, they assess the previous day's developments and discuss the current weather outlook. They use this information to determine what type of chemical formulas will be used for the day ahead.
In addition to the cloud-seeding operations, about 6,000 wells are being drilled in rural communities to provide temporary relief, and soldiers in Thailand's northeastern region have established 11 emergency stations to speed up the distribution of water to local drought victims, northeastern army chief Lieutenant-General Hern Wannaprasert was quoted by local media as saying.
If rains don't start in May and the dry spell extends to the start of July, the drought could cost the country at least 56 billion baht, according to a recently released forecast from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
The university's Center for Economic and Business Forecasting said the country's agricultural sector has already been hit hard by the drought. Huge swaths of rice fields are expected to be devastated, followed by sugarcane and maize, according to the government's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
But positive signs are starting to register. Rainmaking operations in Hua Hin have brought ample rain to two water-retention zones in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan provinces. And rainmaking operations, which are conducting between 40 and 60 cloud-seeding flights per day around the country, have eased the drought situation in 37 provinces.
For now Wathana remains wary of making comments about the long-term outcome of the artificial rainmaking efforts. "But so far the result is convincing," he said. "It has started raining in the target areas."
Sara Schonhardt is a regional editor for Asia Times Online.
The Hua Hin Residents' Club,
for everyone who calls Hua Hin home.
(yahoo.com/group/huahinresidents/)
for everyone who calls Hua Hin home.
(yahoo.com/group/huahinresidents/)
-
Bamboo Grove
- Moderator
- Posts: 5288
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 12:59 pm
- Location: Macau, China
Have to admit, they've been quite succesful here in HH. It's rained heavily on two or three occasions already.
Back in Bamboo Grove
http://bamboogrovestories.blogspot.com/
http://bamboogrovestories.blogspot.com/