An Overview of Cloud Seeding Experiments for Precipitation Enhancement over the Northern Part of the Korean Peninsula and Their Future Prospects

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make a brief survey of the previous weather modification activities over the Northern Part of the Korean Peninsula (NPKP) and to present the prospects of their further development. The weather modification activities over NPKP are divided into three stages with the first of 1960–1970s, the second of 1980–1990s and the third of 2000–2010s. In the first stage, significant cloud seeding experiment data and some technologies for the preparation of scientific basis in applying the weather modification theory were accumulated. The cloud seeding experiments in the second stage were hardly carried out over NPKP, however, fundamental researches and investigations, including the cloud and water-power resource explorations on a nationwide scale, were performed. The cloud seeding experiments over the city of Jungsan (39°06′ N, 125°23′ E) of NPKP during the period of 2017–2020 (the third stage) were performed seven times using newly developed 82-mm rockets and fire-AgI shells with a nucleus generation rate of \(10^{14}{-}10^{15}\) \(\mathrm{g}^{-1}\), and the experiment results were presented in detail. All the cloud seeding experiments except of the first experiment obviously showed the effect of precipitation enhancement near the ground (9.1%). In NPKP, weather modification activities using various cloud seeding means with the object of enhancing the precipitation for overcoming severe drought, providing water-power resource security, etc. will continue on the national scale in the future.