A single hail storm can destroy the year’s harvest. For over 25 years, this gun has been used by vine and fruit growers in France, Spain, Austria and Belgium for one purpose: control nature.
The guns functioning is argued by scientists (it is difficult to prove its results) but already 150 years ago farmers in the Alps used primitive manually controlled versions that worked on carbide. So if it could not make the hail disappear, at least the bang would scare some crows.
With this gun, every five seconds ionizing (high energy) shock waves go up in the air. These reach very fast the high atmosphere, up to 15000m, at -50°C, where the hail is created. A part of the waves will be reverberated by the clouds and the tropopause. These strike against the climbing waves. As a result their speed and energy is enhanced and they transport a large ionizing potential (ionizing means sweeping away electrons). Because the waves move constantly up and down, a mixture of polarities is created in the cloud. They can no longer take on water drops or vapour. They fall down and, during their fall, range over the disturbance area that is created by the shock waves. Consequently, the stones are smashed. Eventually, the hail falls down on the ground in the form of rain or wet snow.
The machine costs approximately 40.000 Euros, which is rather pricy for a scarecrow…
