The accelerating climate crisis is profoundly reshaping our planet. Rising global temperatures are intensifying droughts, disrupting rainfall cycles, and melting glaciers that billions of people depend on for freshwater. Today, water scarcity is one of the most pressing challenges of our century, threatening food security, ecosystems, and human livelihoods—particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Without decisive action, the gap between water supply and demand will continue to widen, placing entire populations at risk.
To confront this challenge, The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), through its Directed Energy Research Center (DERC), has been awarded a prize under the 5th Cycle of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP), for its innovative research proposal leveraging laser-based solutions to address water scarcity challenges.
This project is supported by the National Center of Meteorology, Abu Dhabi, UAE under the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science.
This project explores laser-based weather modification technologies to enhance rainfall in arid regions such as the UAE. The research focuses on harnessing high energy pulsed lasers to stimulate the condensation of water vapor into droplets and encourage their growth into raindrops.
Building on earlier pioneering work, the team is conducting advanced laboratory studies to investigate how laser-generated plasma channels interact with atmospheric particles. The goal is to deepen our understanding of how ionization and laser-induced shockwaves help trigger and enhance droplet collision-coalescence, a key process in rain formation.
To validate these findings, a mobile high energy pulsed laser platform is being developed for outdoor deployment. This next-generation system integrates high-energy pulsed lasers with a precision telescope capable of directing beams into clouds at altitudes ranging from 500 to 3,000 meters. Complementing this, a remote sensing unit measures Droplet Size Distribution (DSD) and analyzes cloud chemistry, providing real-time insights into rain-enhancement processes. Thanks to its mobility the laser system can be relocated across different regions of the UAE, offering unique opportunities to test, optimize, and scale the technology under diverse atmospheric conditions.
Crucial to the success of this initiative is the active involvement of leading international research partners, backed by the strong support of the UAEREP team. Working side by side with the Directed Energy Research Center (DERC), Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland), the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech, China), and University of Hyogo (Japan) are fully engaged as core collaborators, each contributing world-class expertise and specialized resources.
Together, these institutions form a dynamic global research consortium that goes far beyond knowledge exchange. They are jointly defining the research strategy, conducting both laboratory and field experiments, and advancing innovation across multiple domains—from fundamental studies of plasma–atmosphere interactions to the development of deployable high-power laser systems. This strong, hands-on partnership ensures a truly interdisciplinary and international approach, accelerating breakthroughs in rain-enhancement science and expanding the boundaries of what is possible in the global fight against water scarcity.
Mobile High Energy Pulsed Platform
Development of the laser system
Development of the remote sensing system
Modelling and simulations
Evaluation of rain enhancement efficiency using the super-droplet method
Bottom-Up modelling of Laser effects on cloud microphysics
Experimental investigation and rain triggering demonstration
Experimental setups and in-situ investigation
Real time acoustic monitoring and complex signal analysis
Outdoor experiments
PI an Senior Director of High Power Laser and Applications (HPLA) department
Co- PI and Lead of Laser Matter Interaction Division
PI an Senior Director of High Power Laser and Applications (HPLA) department
Co- PI and Lead of Laser Matter Interaction Division
Senior Scientist, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology
Head of laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Empa
Head of Shima Research Group, Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo
Head of Interdisciplinary Multiphase Flow Laboratory, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Antaryami Mohanta - Oral presentation “A12C-01 - Laser-induced Atmospheric Perturbations for Weather Modification”
9-13 December 2024
Reem Al Ameri et al - Poster “Laser Filamentation for Remote Detection of Atmospheric Constituents”
28-30 January 2025
Shamma AlMazrouei et al - Poster “Nonlinear propagation of ultrashort laser pulses for atmospheric applications”
28-30 January 2025
