Unexpected contribution of cloud seeding to NPP increase during drought

Abstract

Cloud seeding is generally used to secure additional water resources, which is not an easy goal to achieve, as the spatial variability of rainfall is high. Instead, the increased rain may moisten the neighboring forest. This study focuses on this situation and estimates the possible increase in the net primary production (NPP) due to cloud seeding. This study considers the Boryeong Dam basin in Korea as a study area and uses the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) model to estimate the NPP at 8-day intervals. As a result, first, the increase of the current 8-day NPP is greater when the rainfall amount during the last 16-day period is 50 mm or more. The mean increase of the 8-day NPP is estimated at about 1.873 g/m2 of carbon. Second, the increase of the NPP with the target 16-day rainfall of 50 mm is estimated at about 3%, which is about 4% with the target 16-day rainfall of 100 mm. Simply extrapolating the derived result to the entire forest in Korea, the increased carbon accumulation can be extended to about 0.6 and 0.8% of the total carbon emission in 2018, respectively. These amounts correspond to about 1.2 and 1.5% of the target amount of carbon reduction by 2030 in Korea.