Atmospheric physicists from Arizona State University have come up with a controversial proposal that they say could in the future mitigate heat waves and other extreme weather events. They called the method Weather Jiu-Jitsu. Its principle consists in carefully timed cloud seeding a few days before the expected peak of extreme weather. In this method for example, silver iodide or table salt is released into the clouds, which support the formation of ice crystals and subsequently precipitation.
This technique is already used in more than 50 countries, including the USA and the United Arab Emirates. Until now, however, it has primarily served to increase the amount of precipitation in specific areas. Scientists have now used model simulations based on the artificial intelligence system Aurora to investigate whether large-scale meteorological phenomena could also be influenced.
Simulations show that the method could, for example, divert the path of Hurricane Sandy from 2012 by approximately 480 kilometers, so it would bypass New York. In the case of frost in Texas in 2021, according to the model, it could increase the minimum temperature by about ten degrees Celsius. An atmospheric river that caused flooding in California in 2022 could reduce rainfall by about 5%. The authors of the study emphasize that it is only the results of computer simulations.
“Weather Jiu-Jitsu proposes a new paradigm: using small, carefully timed interventions that take advantage of the natural dynamics of the atmosphere and can deflect or mitigate extreme weather events before they cause damage.” they reported in a study published in the journal PLOS Water. However, the method also has its critics. “Interfering with the weather raises many ethical questions, as a change in the weather in one country can have catastrophic consequences in another,” warned meteorologist Johan Jaques earlier.
