Asia-Pacific News
China's weather makers made sunshine for anniversary (Extra)
Oct 1, 2009, 10:40 GMT
Beijing - China's rain makers, in their biggest weather manipulation work so far, made the sun shine Thursday over the military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic.
As smog, fog and dark clouds threatened the celebrations and the air force's show in particular, chemical substances were shot into the clouds overnight, making them rain and clearing the air, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Clouds were seeded with silver iodide and dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide, to trigger the rains.
Eighteen planes and 48 mobile units of the People's Liberation Army worked alongside civilian weather manipulators in Beijing, the report said.
China's air force has been studying the manipulation of weather phenomena since the 1950s.
Thursday's efforts to provide blue skies for the Communist Party's big party were more elaborate than those ahead of last' years Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, where the skies were cleared up for the opening ceremony. dpa lw im jh
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