{"id":401,"date":"2017-01-18T18:11:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T18:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/the-forum\/?p=401"},"modified":"2021-11-12T10:22:05","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T10:22:05","slug":"shocking-could-an-electric-charge-make-clouds-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/01\/18\/shocking-could-an-electric-charge-make-clouds-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking! Could an electric charge make clouds rain?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Clouds could be given a helpful jolt of electric charge to increase much-needed rainfall in dry parts of the world, thanks to an award-winning research proposal by scientists at the University of Reading.<\/p>\n<p>The new study will investigate how charge modifies the growth of tiny water droplets into larger drops that fall as rain. It will use a supercomputer to simulate the cloud processes in detail, with specially developed robotic aircraft to sample and charge the clouds.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Reading team was one of three groups awarded funding in this year\u2019s US $5-million-dollar United Arab Emirates (UAE) Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday 17 January. Reading will receive US $1.5m.<\/p>\n<p>The story has been given wide coverage in the region&#8217;s media.<\/p>\n<p>Giles Harrison, Professor of <a style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.met.reading.ac.uk\/\">Atmospheric Physics<\/a> at the University of Reading, said: \u201cOur project is about changing the balance of charges on the tiniest cloud droplets, a neglected aspect of clouds which could revolutionise our ability to manipulate rainfall in areas that need it most.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UAE\u2019s programme is ambitious and imaginative, and has already brought many international scientists together on this important topic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reading.ac.uk\/news-and-events\/releases\/PR709226.aspx\">READ MORE on our News website &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The new research proposal was based on a study\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/qj.2554\">published in the <em>Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society<\/em><\/a> in May 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clouds could be given a helpful jolt of electric charge to increase much-needed rainfall in dry parts of the world, thanks to an award-winning research proposal by scientists at the&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"&#104;&#116;&#116;&#112;&#115;&#58;&#47;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#46;&#114;&#101;&#97;&#100;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#46;&#97;&#99;&#46;&#117;&#107;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#45;&#98;&#108;&#111;&#103;&#47;&#50;&#48;&#49;&#55;&#47;&#48;&#49;&#47;&#49;&#56;&#47;&#115;&#104;&#111;&#99;&#107;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#45;&#99;&#111;&#117;&#108;&#100;&#45;&#97;&#110;&#45;&#101;&#108;&#101;&#99;&#116;&#114;&#105;&#99;&#45;&#99;&#104;&#97;&#114;&#103;&#101;&#45;&#109;&#97;&#107;&#101;&#45;&#99;&#108;&#111;&#117;&#100;&#115;&#45;&#114;&#97;&#105;&#110;&#47;\">Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[187,198,578,735,736,941],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate","tag-clouds","tag-meteorology-2","tag-rain","tag-rainfall","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shocking! 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