The UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) has kicked off a key project focused on developing methods to diagnose cloud seedability in near real time.

UAEREP – a research initiative launched by the UAE Presidential Court and overseen by the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) – is working with Professor Daniel Rosenfeld and his team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the project.

The project kick-off meeting was held recently at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, one of the collaborating research institutions.

Professor Rosenfeld’s team is the recipient of a grant from UAEREP’s 5th cycle. The project named ‘Identification of Clouds’ Microphysical Seedability in an Actionable Manner’, will use spatial resolution data of convective cloud clusters and operational satellite and meteorological data to aid the process. Concurrent assessment and guidance during cloud-seeding flights, complementing previous UAEREP research initiatives, will also be carried out.

The project team includes researchers from Wuhan University, the University of California San Diego and WeatherItIs.

The meeting was held to discuss research methodology, project objectives and timeline, the NCM’s role in the evaluation, and technical support and requirements for the project, including machine learning procedures.

Cloud-seeding project key to rain enhancement science

The project is expected to make significant contributions to the science of rain enhancement. Alya Al Mazroui, director of UAEREP, highlighted the body’s commitment to global water security challenges through responsible innovation and international collaboration.

It aligns with UAEREP‘s mission to foster capacity building and knowledge exchange within the rain enhancement science research community.

Professor Rosenfeld expressed his team’s excitement to be part of this collaborative cloud-seeding initiative. “Through our project, we aim to develop actionable methods for identifying cloud seedability for real-time analysis, revolutionising the way cloud seeding is performed and evaluated,” he added.

Dr Salman Khan, associate professor of Computer Vision at MBZUAI, added that the project would bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and weather modification techniques.