US Navy Creates and Destroys Clouds Using Carbon Black

“We dropped carbon black suspended in liquid, over a track a mile long and produced a solid line of clouds one mile long,” Dr. Florence Van Straten told a reporter.

“When we dropped 1 ¹/₂-pound dry packages of carbon black, we produced single clouds with each drop.”

The navy team seeded seven clouds with carbon, and dissipated each of them in from 2¹/₂ to 20 minutes. “Each cloud turned gray and then rapidly disappeared,” Dr. Van Straten said.

“Aside from the cost of the airplanes, we spent less than $5 on the experiments in Georgia.” [1]

REFERENCES

1. “Blue Skies Or Stormy Weather: Navy Scientist Creates Clouds, Breaks Them Up.” Toledo Blade, 1958.
2. “Carbon Black Controls Clouds: Carbon black cloud seeding makes weather to order.” Chem. Eng. News 1958, 36, 40, 67–68.