Weather Modification in the Soviet Union—1976

Abstract

The U.S.S.R. has a large investment in weather modification research and operations. Major cloud physics experimental facilities exist at the Institute of Experimental Meteorology and at the Institute of Geophysics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. Hail suppression operations are being carried out over about 5 000 000 ha of farmland. Although claims of success in these activities are more modest than they were in 1969, it is still reported that the benefits far exceed the costs. There is relatively little research and, at this time, apparently only one small-scale operational program dealing with precipitation augmentation. Research in the Ukraine over the last three years has led scientists there to conclude that ice nuclei seeding of cumulonimbus clouds, over a substantial area, caused rainfall increases of about 30%. It also was reported that snow from frontal clouds was increased.