Five aircraft from the Northern Royal Rainmaking Operations Centre took to the skies over Chiang Mai this afternoon (1st April) in an effort to disperse the city’s toxic smog. The fleet comprised two Casa aircraft, two L410s and one CN aircraft.
Flying at over 4,000 feet above the city, the planes seeded the atmosphere with dry ice to penetrate the thermal inversion layer trapping pollutants below, pushing the haze upward and thinning PM2.5 concentrations across Chiang Mai and surrounding areas. Simultaneously, cloud-seeding operations using hot-formula calcium oxide were conducted to the west of the city, targeting districts including Omkoi, Chom Thong and Mae Chaem where cloud formation had begun, in hopes of generating rainfall that could wash out remaining smoke and help suppress active fires.
Centre director Kritichai Thammasorn cautioned that while western skies were showing early cloud development, humidity over the urban area remains too low for artificial rain to be induced directly above the city. The dry ice operations are nonetheless able to break up the atmospheric layers in which pollutants accumulate, offering some relief while conditions develop.
If you want to know more about the Royal rainmakers, read up here in this previously published article: https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/clg/our-city/history/the-story-of-rain-part-one-the-absent-storm/
