ANTI-HAIL GUNS

June 11, 2021

To help out horticulturists who face crop damage due to hailstorms, the Himachal Pradesh government will be testing the use of indigenously developed ‘anti-hail guns’. The indigenous guns have been developed by IIT Bombay along with Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry at Nauni (Solan).

About:

An anti-hail gun is a machine which generates shock waves to disrupt the growth of hailstones in clouds.
It comprises a tall, fixed structure somewhat resembling an inverted tower, several metres high, with a long and narrow cone opening towards the sky.
The gun is “fired” by feeding an explosive mixture of acetylene gas and air into its lower chamber, which releases a shock wave (waves which travel faster than the speed of sound, such as those produced by supersonic aircraft).
These shock waves supposedly stop water droplets in clouds from turning into hailstones, so that they fall simply as raindrops.

Source : Indian Express