The city's meteorological scientists carried out the first leg of the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEX) yesterday in which they employed aeroplanes in an attempt to better understand how clouds make rain.
The city's meteorological scientists carried out the first leg of the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEX) yesterday in which they employed aeroplanes in an attempt to better understand how clouds make rain.
The experiment was kicked off from Lohegaon airport and was carried out in collaboration with Israeli scientists.
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on Cloud nine: The piper shine aircraft that was flagged off at noon from Lohegaon airport yesterday |
It is also expected to improve weather forecasting systems.
According to CAIPEX deputy programme manager, Dr Mahesh Kumar, in the inaugural flight, piper shine aircraft collected data on how aerosols interact with cloud formation in the 300 sq km area between the southwest and eastern areas of Pune.
Kumar and Israeli scientist Dr Daniel Rosenfeld were on board the flight during its entire duration of one hour and five minutes. Said Kumar, "Such an experiment is happening for the first time in India. It will help us understand how rain is made in the clouds and will eventually result in improving the weather forecast in the country."
According to Dr Jeevanprakash Kulkarni, "The aircraft collected the data on cloud images, ambient temperature liquid water contents in the cloud and concentration of trace gases like ozone O3, carbon oxide and nitrogen oxide. In subsequent flights, it will study the cloud and aerosol interaction and how both modify each other."u00a0
The CAIPEX programme will be carried out between May and September every year till 2012.
The aircraft used in the experiment was hired from a US-based company.
It is fitted with three types of instruments, mainly to measure aerosol, cloud microphysics, trace gases and other weather parameters like temperature, pressure and humidity.
