[milkalove]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if carbon dust is really used to provoke rain?
The reason I am asking is because I'm doing a translation from Spanish to English which talks about hydrocarbons, catalytic cracking and the like.
In one paragraph they were talking about how carbon dust is not only used in the manufacture of artificial diamonds but also to "sow clouds to provoke rain". This is not a joke. Can anyone confirm this statement? Is there a less literal way of putting it?

Thanks so much for your *delete me*

milkalove

[Dude]

It is probably an accurate statement, although I normally have heard of silver salts added to clouds to induce rain.  The theory is that cloud formation is based upon water condensing or coalescing.  Foreign particles (ie dust, carbon, salts) act as crystallization nuclei and promote cloud formation, a precursor of rain.  I have not seen sufficient data to confirm whether it actually works to produce rain or not.  However, people really have filled up airplanes with fuel and flew at cloud level to release material (possibly carbon dust) in an effort to promote rain in the midwestern US.  Check words such as "cloud seeding" in Google.