Cloud seeding is the actual name for this scientific process.
Cloud seeding is a form of weather modification, a way of changing the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. The usual intent is to increase precipitation (rain or snow), but hail and fog suppression are also widely practiced in airports.
The process of weather modification through cloud seeding has been proven successful at increasing rainfall rates, but also at lessening potential hail damage from storms and even to clear fog, according to the American Meteorological Society. This practice dates as far back as the 1940s. According to North American Weather Consultants, a Utah-based group that is contracted by Los Angeles County to seed clouds during some weather events.
Vincent Schaefer, a self-taught chemist who invented cloud seeding and created the first artificially induced snow and rainfall, died Sunday in Schenectady, N.Y. He was 87 and lived in Rotterdam, N.Y.
Schaefer drew worldwide attention with his 1946 experiments for General Electric Co. making the first snowstorm in a laboratory and inducing precipitation outdoors, solving many of the mysteries of rain and snow that had baffled scientists.
Hopes grew that cloud seeding could fight drought, control storms, reduce hail, quench fires and guarantee a white Christmas.
Schaefer drew worldwide attention with his 1946 experiments for General Electric Co. making the first snowstorm in a laboratory and inducing precipitation outdoors, solving many of the mysteries of rain and snow that had baffled scientists.
Hopes grew that cloud seeding could fight drought, control storms, reduce hail, quench fires and guarantee a white Christmas.
Sources http://articles.chicagotribune.com/