Determined not to let anything spoil their party, organizers of the 2008 Summer Olympics said that they will take control over the most unpredictable element of all -- the weather.
The Chinese are among the world's leaders in what is called "weather modification," but they have more experience creating rain than preventing it. In fact, the techniques are virtually the same. Cloud-seeding is a relatively well-known practice that involves shooting various substances into clouds, such as silver iodide, salts and dry ice, that bring on the formation of larger raindrops, triggering a downpour. But Chinese scientists believe they have perfected a technique that reduces the size of the raindrops, delaying the rain until the clouds move on.
The weather modification would be used only on a small area, opening what would be in effect a meteorological umbrella over the 91,000-seat Olympic stadium. The $400-million stadium, nicknamed the "bird's nest" for its interlacing steel beams, has no roof.
"This is really a very complex process in terms of selecting the place and the time," said Wang Yubin, an engineer from the meteorological bureau. "Probably we will have to decide one day before or very close to the event." continue reading...
An artillery used to seed clouds to induce rain at a Beijing Meteorological
Bureau station in Beijing in July 2007. By Ng Han Guan, AP File
Source: Robyn Stevens
