Monday, March 10, 2003

Envirotech

Looking for a change in the weather

By Jay Rizoli

If you don't like the weather, you may not have to wait very long for it to change.

A Boston startup that launched last week is pitching a proven weather-manipulation technology that could have an impact on environmental occurrences such as drought, fog and forest fires.

"The impact over the past several years of drought has been profound in many areas of the country," said Judy Lazaro, vice president of business development at Ionogenics. "We're here to provide environmentally friendly weather modification technology."

Ionogenics' technology is a far cry from the decades-old practice of cloud seeding, which involves physically injecting chemicals into clouds to induce rain. Ionogenics' environmental manipulation is done from the ground by introducing ions into the atmosphere to induce or inhibit precipitation.

"There have been studies on weather modification but nothing has so far been very successful," said Ionogenics president and chief executive officer Phil Kauffman. "And I'm also kind of including cloud seeding because of the narrow range and the relatively small increase in precipitation."

Traditional cloud-seeding requires an aircraft delivering silver iodide or carbon dioxide into cloud formations - assuming there are any clouds in the target area - to induce a 10 to 20 percent increase in precipitation over an area of 1,000 square kilometers. Ionization, on the other hand, aims for an increase of 50 percent or more over a 7,000-square-kilometer area, and it can be done with no clouds in sight.

The atmosphere is altered using an antenna that broadcasts positive or negative ions into the atmosphere to create currents, humidity and cloud formations. This modification of the energy balance in the atmosphere induces change when applied over time.

Such a capability holds promise for government agencies, farmers, ranchers, water utilities, airports and even insurance companies, who annually pony up billions to farmers in drought and hail insurance. Farmers might get rain when they want it (or delay rain when they don't, such as at harvest time), water companies could boost available reservoirs, and forest agencies could adjust the conditions that invite forest fires.

"You have to understand that it's not an instant thing," said Kauffman, noting that it takes two to four weeks of ionization to see any results. "So a forest fire application would be a year-round thing."

That doesn't mean year-round rain, mind you. An increase in general humidity and more moisture for vegetation would cut the risk and duration of fires. And a decrease in humidity has its advantages as well.

"Fog control is a smaller market concern for us, but it does have tremendous potential for example in airports, such as in Seattle and San Francisco where fog is a problem," Lazaro said.

This weather modification method has its roots in Moscow, where Lev Pokhmelnykh developed what he called ELAT, or electrification of the atmosphere, and founded a company based on the first patented atmospheric ionization technology. Eventually, Heberto Castillo, president of Mexico's Senate Committee on Science and Technology, obtained funding to transfer Pokhmelnykh and his company to Mexico.

That country's first ELAT station, in the drought-stricken state of Sonora, increased average rainfall from 10.6 inches to 51 inches in the first year, according to Mexican department of agriculture statistics. When a lack of state funds shut down the station the following year, area rainfall measured 11 inches. In the third year, with the station operational again, the area recorded 47 inches of rainfall. The technology is now operation in eight states in the driest regions of Mexico, and some areas report a doubling or tripling of annual rainfall.

A license agreement gave Ionogenics the patent rights for the technology, and it is the sole provider of ELAT technology to North America.

The setup of an ionization station is surprisingly simple, consisting of a 120-foot central tower connected to six surrounding peripheral posts by high voltage lines in a configuration resembling the frame of a circus tent (see illustration on page 1).

Ionogenics' services are available via one-year leases and include the computers, antenna, posts and generator, software, and turnkey operation of the hardware. Price is based on area of coverage and desired results and ranges from $150,000 to $200,000 a year. Given the radius, Kauffman said, the cost per acre is small.

While some have expressed concern that the technology actually redistributes water - "robbing Peter to pay Paul," Lazaro called it - that's not what's happening, the company says.

"We try to compress water molecules close to the Earth's surface," Kauffman said. "If water is higher up in the atmosphere, it's not going to come down. So we're not creating moisture but are altering the way it is distributed."

So does this manipulation of nature portend the use of "weather as a weapon," à la Robert Vaughn's supervillain in 1983's "Superman III" or the upcoming feature film "The Core"?

That's not likely, said Kauffman, adding that modifying the weather in this way seems to have no unintended negative affects.

"I don't believe we could ever control beyond general parameters," Kauffman said. "Like anything else it's hard to predict the future, and those that do it are probably wrong anyway. We'll be able to increase or decrease within reasonable ranges, and our goal is to address specific needs."