Stabilizing glaciers by cloud seeding

Glaciogenic cloud seeding is already being conducted at various sites around the world. Wang et al. (2020) suggest that such cloud seeding over glaciers could help to stabilize them or even reverse their melting. They concluded this after a successful experiment using ground based silver iodide (AgI) smoke generators on the Central-Asian Muz Tau glacier, which appeared to significantly enhance snowfall over the glaciers, accounting ‘for at least 79 % of the total snow measured’. However, as discussed more extensively under Snowfall enhancement, significant issues remain in attributing the effectiveness of these measures.

Cloud seeding can only be done if the right clouds are present, and even when seeded, there is only a limited amount of potential extra precipitation to be gained from specific clouds. Moreover, given the relatively small area of many of the most endangered glaciers, it is doubtful whether precipitation can be precisely targeted to fall over them. This  technology would likely only be feasible for glaciers close to the required infrastructure such as airfields, thereby excluding much of the northern regions. Wang et al. (2020) also admit that enhancing precipitation over one area would reduce it in another, potentially limiting the feasibility of this measure over larger areas. 

The basic technology already exists; however, it is unclear whether it could be feasibly expanded to make a significant difference.

The technology might be applied to help slow the melt of particularly valued glaciers, as ongoing experiments by Oerlemans et al. (2017) suggest glacier melt can be stabilized by adding artificial snowfall. Wang et al. (2020) further suggest that precipitation enhancement on a broad scale might be particularly effective reducing summer melt.

Mountain glaciers store enough water to contribute about 50-60 cm to global sea level rise. However, given the described uncertainties around effectiveness and the difficulties with scalability, increasing glacier mass is unlikely to make a global difference.

Cloud seeding is generally expensive (see Snowfall enhancement). Furthermore, Abermann et al. (2022) note that most glacier stabilization techniques are far too costly for the majority of the world's glaciers, even the most visited ones.

Cloud seeding is already routinely used  to provide water for agriculture, and does not pose direct toxic risks. However, Wang et al. (2020) acknowledge that ‘a potential concern is that artificial precipitation activities might redistribute the natural precipitation over a region’.

As described above, cloud seeding is already routinely used to provide water for agriculture, but could potentially lead to a competition over water redistribution. Given the high costs associated with cloud seeding, this would only be done to enhance especially valued resources.

Cloud seeding is inherently reversible as its effects cease when the seeding stops.

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Cloud seeding is already practised by companies and states around the world. The main provision is that it cannot be used for military purposes following the 1977 Environmental Modification Convention. Some commentators warn cloud seeding could lead to major geopolitical tension around water redistribution in the future (Chen et al. 2017; Shevchenko and Horiacheva 2017; de Guglielmo 2021).

The literature on weather modification has historically always been rather isolated (see Snowfall enhancement). The specific application to glaciers has apparently not been picked up after the study by Wang et al. (2020).