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Key Points
- Theories about Cyclone Alfred having been engineered by humans are being spread online.
- Research on rain seeding has been carried out before but without great success.
- Scientists say chemtrails and a research facility in Alaska are not linked to cyclones..
The government organisation said it “does not modify the weather, nor does it fund, participate in or oversee cloud seeding or any other weather modification activities”.
Cyclone Alfred
If it does cross as a cyclone, it will be the first in more than five decades to make landfall so far down the east coast.
Source: SBS News
While the CSIRO has reported a downward trend in the number of cyclones affecting Australia since the 1980s, rising ocean temperatures mean there is greater potential for intense rainfall events with tropical cyclones.
“Being an ex-meteorologist, I checked the sea surface temperatures from the Bureau (of Meterology),” he said.
People in Brisbane are preparing for expected heavy rain and damaging winds from Cyclone Alfred. Source: AAP / Jono Searle
“There is an extension of warm sea surface temperatures down to northern New South Wales, with particular emphasis off the Brisbane area.
On average 11 cyclones develop over Australian waters each season and four cyclones cross the Australian coast each year as most lose strength. If they do cross the coast, most do so as a tropical low.
Cloud seeding
He said even if scientists were able to replicate cyclone generation in a laboratory, achieving this “in the real world would be nigh on impossible”.
The conspiracy theory that condensation trails left behind by aeroplanes are actually trails of chemicals being purposely dispersed into the air has been around for decades. Source: Getty / picture alliance/dpa/picture alliance
Kevin Walsh, a professor in tropical meteorology at the University of Melbourne, said while rain seeding has been attempted as part of research looking into ways of minimising the impact of cyclones on people and built environments, there had not been “any convincing results”.
“I can’t think of a way of doing that, it’s as simple as that, nobody knows how to do it.”
The HAARP theory
Ionosphere and magnetosphere expert Professor Fred Menk from the University of Newcastle told the newswire HAARP’s ionosphere activities do not affect weather formation in the stratosphere or the troposphere, which are many kilometres closer to ground level.
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) studies the properties and behavior of the ionosphere. Source: Getty / zorazhuang
“Weather at ground level is driven by geophysical effects, mostly solar heating, into the neutral atmosphere much nearer the ground,” Menk said.
Chemtrails and weather
Additional reporting by AAP.
