Selerys' cloud seeding balloons and drones, paired with storm early warning, detect, decide, and act within minutes.
SELERYS builds smart cloud seeding balloons and drones, along with the radar and lightning-detection systems used for seedable cloud identification & tracking. This hardware and software lets operators seed clouds on demand and act at the optimum moment. We are the only provider running both on one integrated platform. To date, more than 1,000 systems are deployed worldwide, backed by a 20-year seedable cloud database and a reaction time of under five minutes from decision to seeding.
Selerys' weather modification products at a glance:
- Two aerial systems: LAICO™ SOBLI smart balloons and the LAICO Smart DRONE, deployed depending on field conditions
- Two detection systems: the EVEARLYS™ interferometer for lightning and SKYDETECT™ radar for seedable cloud identification & tracking
- One software platform, CIRRUS, coordinates every balloon, drone, radar, and interferometer from a single interface
Cloud Seeding: LAICO™ SOBLI Smart Balloons
SELERYS‘s smart balloon system, LAICO™ SOBLI, launches autonomously by SMS or web command and reaches its target inside the cloud in under five minutes. Each standard SOBLI station pre-loads up to 24 balloons and can launch one to six at a time. A single balloon can carry up to 500g of flares containing silver iodide or hygroscopic salt (the two most common cloud-seeding agents), lifted by 1.2 m³ of helium.
Smart Balloon Performance Advantages:
- Operate through turbulence, icing, and full darkness, conditions that ground both drones and manned aircraft
- Enter the cloud directly rather than seeding from below or beside it
- Run 24/7 due to requiring no pilot and no systematic flight authorization
- Deliver about 18 times more seeding agent per 100 km² than ground-based burners, and 2 to 4 times more than a traditional anti-hail rocket, covering an area equivalent to three football stadiums per balloon
As a result, switching from aircraft to balloons saves an estimated 75 tonnes of CO2 per year. LAICO balloon technology is covered by three international patents.
Smart balloon applications: hail risk mitigation, rain enhancement, snow enhancement, and fog dispersal.
Cloud Seeding: LAICO™ Smart DRONE
SELERYS‘s LAICO™ Smart DRONE system works with multiple drone platforms: fixed-wing, rotary-wing, VTOL, or multicopter. The right platform depends on the mission and on local constraints such as terrain, available landing and take-off space, and local maintenance skills. Rotary-wing drones, for example, hover at an optimal seeding speed of 5 m/s and withstand wind resistance up to 15 m/s.
Key Operational Features:
- Fly long-range missions over stable, predictable cloud formations
- Target small or isolated cloud systems with precision, deployed autonomously or by remote SMS/web command
- Carry multiple flares loaded with silver iodide or hygroscopic salt
- Transmit live GPS position and atmospheric data back to the CIRRUS software system during flight, the same live feed used by the balloon fleet
SELERYS‘s real differentiator isn’t the drone hardware itself. Instead, a mission manager, operating through CIRRUS, takes remote control of whichever platform is deployed for secure, autonomous smart cloud-seeding flight, so operators run every drone the same way regardless of which one is on the ground.
Smart drone applications for weather modification: rain enhancement, fog dispersal, and any use case above where field conditions favor precision over broad coverage.
Storm Early Warning: EVEARLYS™ Interferometer
EVEARLYS™ is SELERYS‘s UHF interferometric lightning detection system, a radio-based technique for tracking total lightning activity. It captures electrical activity building inside a storm cell (a self-contained thunderstorm system with its own rising and falling air currents) before that cell is dense enough to register clearly on traditional rainfall radar.
Paired with SKYDETECT, EVEARLYS helps determine how mature a storm cell already visible on radar is, adding insight that traditional radar alone doesn’t provide.
Importantly, EVEARLYS detects more than 99% of total lightning activity in its coverage area, including both intra-cloud flashes and cloud-to-ground strokes, at a nominal acquisition threshold of -97 dBm (a measure of how faint a signal the system can still detect) and a processing resolution of 10 microseconds.
Physical footprint:
- Four panels per installation, each 1.3 by 1 meter, weighing 7 kilograms
- 180° field of view per panel
- Minimum four-hour uninterrupted power supply
- Pairs directly with SKYDETECT on the same tower
- Covered by three patents
Seedable clouds identification & storm early warning: SKYDETECT™ Radar
SKYDETECT™ is SELERYS‘s short-range X-Band radar, well suited to seedable clouds & storm identification & tracking. It’s built around a lightweight 6kW antenna that can be installed on a tower, mast, or building in a single day.
Each unit monitors a 30km radius, scanning the full half-sphere of sky above it in real time and mapping each cloud cell’s maximum reflectivity in high definition.
In addition, SELERYS‘s detection technology draws on our proprietary algorithms and a seedable cloud database spanning 20 years of in-house data. With that extended history, the system distinguishes a developing storm from passing clouds, rather than flagging every reading as a threat.
SELERYS also deploys mobile, mast-mounted radar trailers for time-sensitive or temporary coverage needs.
Ready to operate from day one: every SKYDETECT installation comes with more than just the antenna. It includes the full software suite, a multi-user management interface, remote sensor and network monitoring, and ongoing maintenance and support.
Cloud Seeding & Storm Warning Software: CIRRUS™
CIRRUS™, along with its shared storm database, lets operators control every weather modification system built by SELERYS — LAICO cloud seeding balloons and drones, radar, and lightning detection — from one interface. The software system scans the half-sphere in HD once per minute, tracking cloud cells in real time. It also anticipates cloud motion 10 to 20 minutes ahead, using the same seedable clouds & storm database that SKYDETECT uses.
CIRRUS™ Core Capabilities:
- Track every balloon and drone in flight simultaneously, with live GPS position and real-time radiosounding data from each one
- Send remote launch commands to the entire fleet from a single control interface
- Receive automated alerts by SMS, email, or phone, based on custom thresholds and user-defined zones
- Search more than a year of cloud activity archives, with a calendar view flagging past storms
- See how many flares are left and how many balloons or drone flights each SOBLI station has launched, so you always know the remaining supply without a manual count
Comparison table: SELERYS cloud seeding balloons and drones
| Condition | Smart Balloons | Smart Drones |
|---|---|---|
| Turbulence | Operates normally | Grounded |
| Icing | Operates normally | Grounded |
| Night operations | Operates normally | Not used |
| Direct cloud entry (cumulonimbus) | Yes | No |
| Mountainous terrain | Yes | Limited |
| Coverage style | Networked, large-area | Targeted, localized |
| Wind resistance | No stated ceiling in current data | Up to 15 m/s |
| Pilot or flight authorization required | No | Yes |
| Typical reaction time | Under 5 minutes | Under 15 minutes |
Frequently Asked Questions
How does SELERYS decide between balloons and drones for a given deployment?
The choice depends on mission type, cloud type, terrain, and maintenance capacity. Wind speed alone is not the deciding factor. In particular, balloons can operate in turbulence, icing, darkness, and mountainous terrain. They also cover large areas through a network of launchers. Drones work best in stable conditions with moderate wind. They fly long distances and target small, specific cloud systems with precision.
What does SELERYS include in its integrated platform?
Every deployment combines four layers:
- Delivery: LAICO balloons and drones
- Launch infrastructure: autonomous SOBLI ground stations
- Detection: SKYDETECT radar and EVEARLYS interferometry
- Command: CIRRUS, coordinating all of it from one interface
SKYDETECT can also be purchased as a turnkey package. This includes the hardware, the full software suite, multi-user access, remote monitoring, and ongoing maintenance and support.
What kind of company is SELERYS, and what does it do?
SELERYS builds and operates cloud seeding balloons and drones as part of a broader weather-modification and storm-early-warning system. These autonomous systems mitigate hail, enhance rain and snow, and disperse fog. SELERYS also builds radar and lightning-detection systems, managed together through the CIRRUS software.
What distinguishes SELERYS's approach from operators offering only one delivery method?
Unlike operators that offer only one delivery method, SELERYS combines balloon and drone cloud seeding in a single integrated platform. Drones cannot fly in turbulence, icing, or darkness. In these conditions, SELERYS‘s balloons take over, so coverage never stops. Significantly, balloons don’t need a pilot. They operate under a Freedom to Operate agreement with civil aviation authorities and reach their target in under five minutes from the decision to seed. Using balloons instead of aircraft also saves an estimated 75 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.
What does a full SELERYS infrastructure deployment consist of?
A full deployment comprises five parts: LAICO SOBLI Smart Balloons, LAICO Smart DRONE, SKYDETECT Radar, EVEARLYS Interferometer, and the CIRRUS software that manages all four through a single interface. Each part also works independently and has been tested in the field. Together, they form one connected system rather than separate products.
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