Calling the rain: Yak-42D special aircraft of "Roshydromet" will be used in drought-affected regions of Russia

The airborne laboratory helps meteorologists make forecasts and even influence the weather

At a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev announced plans to introduce the regular use of specialized aircraft to artificially induce precipitation in drought-stricken regions.

This year, such an aircraft worked in the south of Russia, which, according to Patrushev, made it possible to show "the highest yield."

Including through the use of special aircraft for artificial precipitation enhancement. Roshydromet, for example, has such an aircraft, the Yak-42D. In other regions of the south where the aircraft did not operate, there was a drought, while in the Stavropol Territory everything was quite good. I think we will replicate this practice in the constituent entities that are prone to drought.
Dmitry Patrushev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Yak-42D "Roshydromet" (RA-42440) is an airborne laboratory that helps meteorologists make forecasts and even influence the weather.

Features of the Yak-42D aircraft "Roshydromet" (RA-42440):

  • working with thunderclouds;
  • observing volcanoes;
  • determining air quality;
  • prompt detection of harmful substances in the atmosphere after natural disasters;
  • weather modification: inducing rain in drought-affected areas, dispersing clouds.

The aircraft is equipped with 76 different instruments and more than 50 external sensors located on the fuselage and pylons under the wing. The Yak-42D "Roshydromet" received technical means of active impact, a generator of small dispersed ice particles and a device for firing flares with ice-forming aerosols, as well as equipment for spraying liquid nitrogen. In addition to two pilots and a flight engineer, the aircraft's crew includes 14 flight operators working with scientific equipment.

Earlier, www1.ru reported that Indian scientists will fly to the center of the Earth for the first time on the Russian Il-76 aircraft.

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