The UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science

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The United Arab Emirates Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) is a global research initiative offering a grant of US$5 million over a three-year period to be shared by up to five winning research projects in the field of rain enhancement.

Contents

The cloud-seeding operations were initiated in the late 1990s in the UAE. By early 2001 these operations were being conducted in cooperation with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado, USA, the Witwatersrand University in South Africa and the US Space Agency, NASA. [1]

Management of the Program

The United Arab Emirates Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science is an initiative of the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Presidential Affairs and was launched at the beginning of 2015 under the patronage [2] of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs. It is managed by Alya Al Mazroui and overseen by the UAE National Center of Meteorology & Seismology [3] (NCMS) based in Abu Dhabi. [4]

Goals of the Program

Four pathways have been identified to achieve those goals:

Selection Process

The research grant is awarded on a yearly basis. The Program invites innovative research and technology proposals from domestic or foreign, public or private, non-profit or for-profit organizations and, in some cases, individuals. [6]

All of the proposals selected are subject to five criteria:

Program cycles

The program had the following two cycles.

First cycle

The first cycle of the Program was announced on 20 January 2015. All awardees were selected by a merit review process [8] and announced in January 2016. [9] The awarded research projects were selected based on their ability to promote scientific understanding in the field of rain enhancement science and further develop related technologies, applications, and operations, as well as build capacity.

The three prize-awarded scientists leading the research teams that share this cycle's grant of US$5 million are:

In 2015, in total, 325 scientists and researchers affiliated to 151 organizations applied to the Program. These researchers, drawn from 34 countries around the world, cooperated as scientific teams on the submission of a total of 78 pre-proposals. [10]

Second cycle

Announced on January 19, 2016, the Program received 91 pre-proposals [11] from 398 scientists, researchers, and technologists affiliated to 180 institutes from 45 nations. [12] Candidates from 45 countries — including scientists and researchers from 15 new countries such as Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, Hungary, Mexico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden, and Turkey, sent proposals to the Program.

After a month-long initial review process, 15 pre-proposals have been shortlisted. [13]

on 17 January 2017 The Second Cycle awardees were selected due to their innovative technologies, applications, and operations towards the scientific understanding in the field of rain enhancement science. The awarded scientists include [14] [15]

Third cycle

The awardees of the Third Cycle of the Program were announced on 17 January 2018, during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW). [16] The awarded research projects were led by researchers from Russia, USA and China. Selected from a highly competitive field, the awarded projects featured a range of innovative new scientific and technological approaches to rain enhancement.

The three prize-awarded scientists leading the research teams that share the Third Cycle's grant of US$5 million are:

Reflecting the Program's outstanding success and growing international status as a hub for rain enhancement research, the Third Cycle call for research proposals led to 201 pre-proposal submissions being received, representing 710 scientists and researchers affiliated to 316 institutions spread across 68 countries on five continents. [23]

Cloud seeding in the UAE

This section is an excerpt from Cloud seeding in the United Arab Emirates.[ edit ]
Cloud seeding in the United Arab Emirates is a strategy used by the government to address water challenges in the country. Cloud seeding is also referred to as man made precipitation and artificial rain making. [24] The United Arab Emirates is one of the first countries in the Arabian Gulf region to use cloud seeding technology. UAE scientists use cloud seeding technology to supplement the country's water insecurity, which stems from the extremely hot climate. [25] They use weather radar to continuously monitor the atmosphere of the country. [26] Forecasters and scientists have estimated that cloud seeding operations can enhance rainfall by as much as 30-35% percent in a clear atmosphere, and up to 10-15% in a more humid atmosphere. [27] This practice has caused concerns regarding the impact on the environment because it is difficult to predict the long-term global implications. [28]
Cloud seeding rains in Dubai

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References

  1. ↑ "UAE mulls cloud seeding to enhance rainfall". Gulf News. March 29, 2007.
  2. ↑ "WAM - Emirates News Agency, Mansour bin Zayed stresses UAE's leadership in embracing scientific research as key pillar of country's innovation strategy". WAM. 2016-04-19. Archived from the original on 2016-04-23.
  3. ↑ "Cloud Seeding, Studies and Assessment". National Center of Meteorology and Seismology. Archived from the original on 2017-01-05.
  4. ↑ "Cloud Seeding". National Center of Meteorology and Seismology official website. Archived from the original on 2019-02-17.
  5. ↑ "Scientists are making it rain in Abu Dhabi". CNN. 30 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Let it rain in UAE: $5m to stimulate rainfall". Emirates 24/7. February 17, 2015.
  7. ↑ "UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science committee meet to select 2015 cycle winners". uae interact. 16 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-02-14.
  8. ↑ "UAE rain enhancement programme assesses pre-proposals". Gulf News. 17 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "Academic trio with 'heads in the clouds' win $5m UAE rain enhancement research grant". The National. 19 January 2016.
  10. ↑ "Hundreds of scientists apply for UAE research programme to increase rainfall". The National. 12 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "UAE research programme for rain enhancement science". World Meteorological Organization. 4 May 2016.
  12. ↑ "UAE research programme for rain enhancement science". World Meteorological Organization. 4 May 2016. Archived from the original on December 18, 2023.
  13. ↑ "UAE Research Program For Rain Enhancement Science Shortlists Promising Research Projects From Around The World In Second Cycle". Middle East Events. 23 May 2016.
  14. ↑ "Research Groups from USA, Finland and UK Announced as Recipients of UAE Rain Enhancement Program's 5 Million Dollar Grant". World Meteorological Organization. 23 January 2017. Archived from the original on December 18, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Research Groups From USA, Finland and UK Announced as Recipients of UAE Rain Enhancement Program's 5 Million Dollar Grant". Telegraphindia. Jan 18, 2017.[ dead link ]
  16. ↑ "Abu dhabi sustainability week". Abu dhabi sustainability week.
  17. ↑ "Ali M. Abshaev". linkedin.
  18. ↑ "antigrad".
  19. ↑ "Eric W. Frew". Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles. 29 October 2014.
  20. ↑ "Eric W. Frew Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department". colorado.
  21. ↑ "Lulin Xue". The National Center for Atmospheric Research.
  22. ↑ "Research Groups from the USA, China and Russia Announced as Awardees of UAEREP's US$5 Million Grant in its Third Cycle". UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science.
  23. ↑ "The UAE has carried out 6 cloud-seeding missions". Gulf news.
  24. ↑ Farahat, A.; Abuelgasim, A. (2022-02-01). "Effect of cloud seeding on aerosol properties and particulate matter variability in the United Arab Emirates". International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology. 19 (2): 951–968. doi: 10.1007/s13762-020-03057-5 . ISSN   1735-2630. S2CID   231877327.
  25. ↑ Ćurić, Mladjen; Lompar, Miloš; Romanic, Djordje; Zou, Linda; Liang, Haoran (June 2019). "Three-Dimensional Modelling of Precipitation Enhancement by Cloud Seeding in Three Different Climate Zones". Atmosphere. 10 (6): 294. Bibcode:2019Atmos..10..294C. doi: 10.3390/atmos10060294 . ISSN   2073-4433.
  26. ↑ Cloud Seeding, National Center of Meteorology & Seismology, United Arab Emirates
  27. ↑ "UAE's Rain Enhancement Program Addresses Key Technical Challenges". Water Online. 22 April 2015.
  28. ↑ "Is the UAE Really Making It Rain by Seeding Clouds?". www.vice.com. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
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