• DocumentCode
    2905225
  • Title

    Do bacteria in the clouds cause rain?

  • Author

    Sands, David

  • Author_Institution
    Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT, USA
  • fYear
    2011
  • fDate
    5-12 March 2011
  • Firstpage
    1
  • Lastpage
    2
  • Abstract
    This idea is that The Bug grows on plant surfaces and can be swept into the atmosphere in microscopic dandruff-like magic carpets where special bacterial proteins nucleate free water in the clouds forming ice crystals. The ice crystals once formed from the bacterial nucleation event, then bounce around and multiply, and can eventually fall to earth as snow or rain. The idea that plants and their bacteria might have a role in clouds and then in rainfall formation was presented some 25 years ago from observations in and above Montana wheat fields. It is only recently that the bioprecipitation cycle hypothesis has had some validity from data generated at the tops of our four ski resorts in the Big Sky and Bozeman areas. They are working with scientists on several continents interested in this hypothesis because by choosing the right crops to sustain the bacteria, they might be able to cause additional rain in drought stricken areas of the world.
  • Keywords
    clouds; crops; microorganisms; nucleation; rain; snow; Big Sky area; Bozeman area; Montana wheat field; USA; bacterial nucleation event; bacterial protein free nucleate water; bioprecipitation cycle hypothesis; clouds; drought stricken area; ice crystals; microscopic dandruff-like magic carpet; rainfall formation; snow; Agriculture; Clouds; Crystals; Ice; Microorganisms; Rain;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Aerospace Conference, 2011 IEEE
  • Conference_Location
    Big Sky, MT
  • ISSN
    1095-323X
  • Print_ISBN
    978-1-4244-7350-2
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/AERO.2011.5747219
  • Filename
    5747219