Outdoor Experiments
CLOUDLAB
CLOUDLAB is a project at ETH Zürich that focuses on understanding internal cloud processes by performing targeted seeding experiments using drones.
Status
| Status | Ongoing |
| Start/End | 2021 / Ongoing |
| Location | Eriswell, Switzerland |
| Type | Mixed-Phase Cloud Thinning |
| Experiment Type | Scientific |
| Funded By | Horizon 2020 -EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC), German Research Foundation (DFG) |
Description
The CLOUDLAB project at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, initiated in 2021, focuses on improving understanding of cloud processes.
The researchers “seed” persistent winter-time stratus clouds by injecting ice-forming particles from a drone. A suite of instruments measures the impacts of cloud seeding on processes within the seeded cloud from the ground (cloud radar and lidar) and air (tethered balloon and drone). By repeating this process, the team has improved understanding of ice formation and growth rates.
Internal cloud processes – also known as “cloud microphysics” – are difficult to simulate, leading to uncertainties in climate and weather forecasting models. The main goal of CLOUDLAB is to reduce these uncertainties in the weather forecast model used by MeteoSwiss, Switzerland’s weather agency.
The team acknowledges, however, that their work has implications for mixed-phase cloud thinning (MPCT), a potential solar geoengineering approach. MPCT would apply cloud seeding techniques to initiate ice formation in clouds to decrease cloud depth or lifetime, allowing more heat to escape the atmosphere.
Key Papers
Miller, A. J., Ramelli, F., Fuchs, C., Omanovic, N., Spirig, R., Zhang, H., et al. (2024). Two new multirotor uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for glaciogenic cloud seeding and aerosol measurements within the CLOUDLAB project. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 17(2), 601–625. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-601-2024