As Israel welcomes the weekends’ rains from its nearly dry winter, EMS Mekorot has been working on capitalizing the much-needed wet commodity in the Middle East. EMS Mekorot, a subsidiary of Israel’s National Water company, Mekorot, has been seeding the clouds for 46 hours to maximize the blessed downpour.
“The seeding activities will continue as long as weather conditions will permit,” EMS Mekorot CEO, Shimon Hamu, stated. In addition, Hamu said that his company clocked 290 flight hours from November until now in cloud seeding, with 146 hours of flying in February. In contrast, the company’s pilots flew during the same period a year ago only 138 hours.
EMS Mekorot’s rain enhancement activities are performed annually between November and April, weather permitting. The optimum weather conditions depend on wind directions, appropriate cloud temperatures, along with just the right type of cloud formations saturated with water. The highest priority is given to cloud seeding above Israel’s largest body of drinkable water, the Sea of Galilee.
EMS utilizes both seeding planes and ground burners to seed clouds with silver iodide in order to enhance precipitation. These seeding methods include ground-based silver iodide generators, static airborne seeding near the cloud base and silver iodide flares released from aircraft flying at higher altitudes.
The company remotely operates 30 ground burners in three regions of northern Israel: the Galilee Panhandle, the Upper Galilee, and the Lower Galilee.
Mekorot’s radar monitors, stationed at Ben-Gurion Airport, detect precipitation at their targeted areas. EMS Mekorot then launches planes with special burners and ignites ground burners that seed the clouds with silver iodide. These chemicals are useful in making clouds substantially colder, which in turn accelerates the precipitation process.
When ice particles form in super-cooled clouds, the particles become heavy enough to fall as rain from clouds that otherwise would not have produced precipitation. This process is known as "static" seeding.
Cost Effective Method
Studies have shown an increase in rain in the north by an average of 13 percent annually through seeding. Hydrologic research shows that about 60 million cubic meters are added annually to Israel’s water supply due to rain-enhancement. Although cloud seeding is not considered cheap by western standards, for a country that is experiencing its driest winter since 1948, the price is a bargain at merely 10 agorot (about 2 cents) per cubic meter. The cost is only 5 percent of the cost of a comparable amount of water using desalination methods.
Mekorot’s CEO, Ido Rozolio views cloud seeding as having a vast potential for increasing Israel’s water supply. Due to the fact that rain enhancement is not an established technology, EMS takes an active role in rain enhancement research in conjunction with leading Israeli research and academic institutes, including the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. Practical research efforts range from engaging in seeding flights utilizing sophisticated rain measurement and collection devices, to burner operations, cloud radar and satellite photography. EMS also tests novel, sophisticated technologies developed by start-up companies and others.
Based on the success of the company’s activities in Israel, Mekorot staff have been invited to engage in a rain enhancement project in Italy. Numerous countries that are establishing their own rain enhancement activities have also sought advice from EMS personnel.