The National Center of Meteorology (NCM) announced that the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science’s(UAEREP) awardees have published, to date,66 scientific articles in 24peerreviewed Q1 international scientific journals.

These journals include the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) Journal of Atmospheric Sciences (JAS) and Journal of Climate,the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Journal of Geophysical Research, the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Journal of Physical Chemistry, the European Geophysical Union’s (EGU) Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP),the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS), and the Journal of Atmospheric Research.

His Excellency Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, Director of the National Center of Meteorology and President of the Regional Association II (Asia), said: “The groundbreaking research work undertaken by the scientists associated with NCM through the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science is aimed at advancing the science and technology of rain enhancement and shaping a sustainable future of our water resources. In addition to supporting international cooperation to reduce water scarcity, these efforts have helped generate a renewed interest in this vital scientific domain and paved the way for developing new solutions that benefit regions facing water stress around the world.”

Al Mandous added: “At NCM, we are committed to ensuring the program’s continued leadership and excellence in rain enhancement research through promoting science-based solutions and building local capacities to place the UAE at the forefront of technological and scientific innovation in this field.”

For her part, Alya Al Mazroui, Director of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP), said: “We are proud of the outstanding research output produced to date by program awardees. In addition to enhancing UAEREP’s status as an international resource hub to assist researchers in this important scientific field, these articles have become vital scientific references in the field of rain enhancement research worldwide.”

She added: “At UAEREP, we work closely with our scientists and researchers to transfer the theoretical knowledge contained in these articles into application through providing them with state-of-the-art technologies and facilities necessary for conducting field experiments. This helps the awardees maximize the impact of their research effort in finding sustainable solutions to global water-stress issues as well as supporting the future development of rain enhancement science.”

The awardee articles tackled a wide range of topics including the characterization of background aerosol and cloud properties using satellite, aircraft and ground-based measurements, lab-scale production and testing of optimized nanotechnology-based hygroscopic and glaciogenic cloud seeding materials, numerical weather prediction experiments to inter-compare model parameterizations for improved representation of convection, simulations of artificial cloud creation using jet engine composite systems, demonstration of UAV platforms for atmospheric measurements and charge release.

In publishing these studies, the program awardees have made significant contribution towards bridging the existing knowledge gap and aiding the quest for improved water security through strengthening research frameworks for international and regional research collaboration.