- Beijing Weather Modification Office
Chinese
s=北京市人工影响天气办公室
t=北京市人工影響天氣辦公室
p=Běijīngshì Réngōng Yíngxiăng Tiānqì BàngōngshìThe Beijing Weather Modification Office is a unit of the
Beijing Meteorological Bureau tasked withweather control inBeijing and its surrounding areas, including parts ofHebei andInner Mongolia . [cite web|url=http://www.bjmb.gov.cn/en/wmod.asp|publisher=Beijing Meteorological Bureau|title=Weather modification|accessdate=2007-11-15] cite news|url=http://weather.people.com.cn/GB/4528302.html|work=People's Daily|title=北京市气象台今年首发雷雨大风蓝色预警 (Beijing Meteorological Bureau issues blue thunderstorm warning for first time this year)|language=Chinese|date=2006-06-26 |accessdate=2007-11-15] cite news|work=China Radio International|date=2007-08-15 |accessdate=2007-11-15|url=http://gb.cri.cn/17844/2007/08/15/1665@1717981.htm|title=08奥运天气控制系统大揭秘 控制天气全凭高科技 (08 Olympics weather control system unveiled; controls the weather with advanced technology)|last=Chen|first=Jieqiong] The Beijing Weather Modification Office form a part of China's nationwide weather control effort, believed to be the world's largest; it employs 37,000 people nationwide, who seed clouds by firing rockets and shells loaded withsilver iodide into them.cite news|work=USA Today|last=MacLeod|first=Calum|date=2006-06-29 |accessdate=2007-11-15|title=China rolls out the big guns, aiming for a dry Olympics|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-29-china-rain_x.htm] According to Zhang Qiang, head of the Office, cloud seeding increased precipitation in Beijing by about one-eighth in 2004; nationwide, similar efforts are believed to have added convert|7.4|Tcuft|km3 of rain between 1995 and 2003.cite news|url=http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/26260/story.htm|title=China Seeders Train Sights on Soggy Skies|work=Reuters|last=Ruwitch|first=John|date=2004-07-27 |accessdate=2007-11-19]The work of the Office is largely aimed at
hailstorm prevention or making rain to end droughts; they have also induced precipitation for purposes offirefighting or counteracting the effect of severedust storm s, as they did in the aftermath of one storm in April 2006 which dropped 300,000 tonnes of dust and sand on the city and was believed to have been the largest in five years. [cite news|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12644965/from/RSS/|date=2006-05-06 |work=MSNBC News|accessdate=2007-11-15|title=China says it made rain to wash off sand] Their technology was also used to create snow onNew Year's Day in 1997. [cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=DSNB&d_place=DSNB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F3648EDDE4F8C78&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|publisher=The Deseret News|title=Need More Snow? Beijing Weather Wizards Deliver|date=1997-01-16 |accessdate=2007-11-19] Other proposed future uses for induced precipitation include lowering temperatures in summer, in hopes of reducing electricity consumption. More prominently, they have also been enlisted by the Chinese government to attempt to ensure that the2008 Summer Olympics are free of rain, by breaking up clouds headed towards the capital and forcing them to drop rain on outlying areas instead.References
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