UAE To Enhance Rainfall Using AI for Cloud Seeding

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), through the UAE Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP), will deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve enhanced precipitation nowcasting.

The project's focal point will be the creation of an AI research and operations testbed in the UAE. A novel AI framework will be built to combine satellite observations, ground-based weather radar data, rain gauges, and numerical weather prediction estimates to extract features and generate products that could determine optimal cloud seeding timings and locations.

To expand rain enhancement capabilities in the UAE, the multidisciplinary team expects to deliver a prototype of the AI-based predictive capabilities deployed at the NCM in Abu Dhabi through a research and operations partnership.

This will allow the Centre to identify optimal cloud characteristics, timings, and seeding locations and enhance quantitative precipitation estimates for rain enhancement in the UAE by deploying a prototype AI-based system at NCM for precipitation nowcasting between 0-6 hours.