Rain and Snow Enhancement by SELERYS

Rain and snow enhancement, also called cloud seeding for rain and snow, works by injecting hygroscopic salt or silver iodide (AgI) into a cloud to increase precipitation (rain or snow). Hygroscopic salt grows water droplets large enough to collide and fall as rain, which works best in warm and/or convective clouds. In turn, silver iodide multiplies ice-forming particles in cold and mixed-phase clouds, including the long-lived cloud systems that build over mountains in winter. SELERYS, a pioneer in atmospheric water resource management technologies, delivers the agent using autonomous LAICO SOBLI balloons or drones guided by CIRRUS, our AI-driven weather software.

Yes. In Romania, a SELERYS program increased rainfall up to 25%, with the most intense episodes reaching roughly 400%, as documented by Romania’s National Agency for Hail Suppression and Precipitation Enhancement (AASNACP) and by an independent, peer-reviewed study (Ilie et al., 2024). Independent evaluations in other countries reached similar conclusions: the World Meteorological Organization reports that more than 40 countries currently run operational atmospheric water resource management programs. Australia’s Snowy Mountains precipitation enhancement project measured a 14% increase, Israel’s Second Randomized Cloud Seeding Experiment showed a 13% to 18% increase, and the UAE’s national cloud seeding program measured a 23% increase.

Yes, extensively. SELERYS designs, installs, and operates complete precipitation enhancement networks for agricultural regions, water utilities, and institutional clients across North Africa, South America, and Asia, in addition to its programs in Europe. Our systems include balloon launch stations, drones, SKYDETECT X-band radars, EVEARLYS UHF interferometers, and the CIRRUS software that orchestrates the missions.

Yes, using the same silver iodide mechanism as rain enhancement, adapted for cold mountain clouds. The SNOWIE project, a glaciogenic seeding experiment run in Idaho’s Payette River basin in 2017 and funded by the US National Science Foundation, independently documented the seeding-to-snowfall mechanism by tracking silver iodide-triggered ice crystals as they formed, grew, and fell to the ground as snow.

A fuller winter snowpack benefits hydropower utilities first (through reservoir levels and the water available downstream for irrigation the following summer), but ski resorts and farmland also benefit from snow enhancement through cloud seeding. As snow melts gradually through spring and summer, it also improves the water supply for fields and orchards.

A balloon suits a fixed site that needs a reliable water supply every season, in all types of weather, including convective settings and mountain cloud systems that a manned aircraft can’t reach at low altitude. Drones work best for seeding stable cloud systems, but in many countries they require a licensed operator and flight clearance first, which isn’t the case for LAICO balloons.

A ground-based generator depends on favorable wind to lift its agent into the cloud base, limiting it to a few clouds already forming near the ground and unable to guarantee any agent-transfer rate. A manned aircraft needs hours of pre-flight preparation and stops flying after dark. LAICO SOBLI balloons need under 5 minutes to launch, day or night, and seed directly inside the cloud rather than from below it.

Yes. LAICO SOBLI balloons use helium, and every disposable component is inert once it comes down, unlike a drone’s lithium batteries or an aircraft’s exhaust. A standard balloon cloud seeding program saves roughly 75 tonnes of CO2-equivalent a year compared to aircraft-based seeding, according to an independent European Commission-sponsored survey.

LAICO SOBLI cloud seeding balloons launch in under 5 minutes and LAICO drones in under 15. Once released, the seeding effect registers within about 10 minutes and lasts 30 to 60 minutes.