Nation uses large UAV for cloud seeding on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

China’s Wing Loong-2H large civil unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has recently conducted a cloud seeding operation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, according to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

Wing Loong-2H detected the precipitation clouds and carried out artificial rainfall enhancement over the Aemye Ma-chhen Range in the Sanjiangyuan region on the plateau, said the AVIC.

The operation is in joint efforts of the Weather Modification Center under the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Meteorological Observation Center under the CMA, AVIC (Chengdu) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System Co Ltd, and multiple other units.

The large UAV was installed with the catalyzing device for precipitation enhancement, according to the AVIC.

It also carried the cloud-precipitation detection device to observe and provide data to the study on the characteristics and structure of cloud-precipitation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the effects of precipitation enhancement.

The study helps facilitate the research of the cloud-precipitation mechanism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and related catalytic technologies.

During the operation lasting around five hours, it is estimated that the precipitation enhancement operation influenced up to 15,000 square kilometers, said the AVIC.

Sanjiangyuan, which means the “source of three rivers,” is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang rivers.

Wing Loong-2H’s operation this time is part of the tests of sizeable UAV-based precipitation enhancement on the plateau. It aims to increase snowfalls and ice coverage in glacier areas on the plateau.

In the next step, the CMA will push forward the construction of an extensive UAV-based airborne meteorological observation system for the ecological protection of the plateau.