인공강우 실험 결과는 한달 뒤…예상 효과성은?<br /><br />South Korea is creating artificial rain to try and reduce fine dust.<br />A pilot project is launched today, with planes spraying siver iodide over the western coastline of Gyeonggi-do Province.<br />Hong Yoo zooms in on this new measure to improve the nation's air quality. <br />Early Friday morning, South Korea began its first national-scale test of artificial rain to study its effectiveness in reducing fine dust.<br />A plane took off from Gimpo Airport near Seoul, carrying silver iodide, a chemical that helps form water droplets inside clouds.<br />It headed for the western coast of Gyeonggi-do Province and went all the way down to the coast of Jeollabuk-do Province.<br />As it went, the plane sprayed 24 bursts of silver iodide above the clouds that had formed over the sea.<br />Now, officials on a ship are analyzing the changes in fine dust density and rain.<br />It'll take a month to determine the effectiveness of the technique, but the government will announce the progress of their analysis next Monday.<br />Some experts, however, have doubts about artificial rain, which has been tried in countries like Thailand and China.<br />It has had a success rate of only about 40 percent.<br />To reduce fine dust density by 10 percent... would require more than 10 millimeters of rain in a period of three hours.<br />"Clouds in Thailand tend to rain a lot when seeded, but clouds in Korea are not the right kind for cloud seeding."<br />Plus, making artificial rain in regions with high levels of fine dust could cause problems for other regions. <br />"The amount of moisture in the atmosphere is limited. If you make it rain in one spot or a certain spot that you want, other people are going to lose that amount of rain. Droughts being severe in our country,... other people will lose that rain."<br />The government has 14 more tests planned for this year.<br />Hong Yoo, Arirang News. <br />
