To carry out these works, the Agency has a number of aircraft and ground technical means and meteorological equipment. In the work on artificial regulation of precipitation, Russian aircraft such as An-12, Il-18, An-26, An-30, An-28, An-2 are used, equipped with technical means for influencing clouds and having airworthiness certificates. Airborne means of influence include generators permanently installed on board the aircraft, and generators fired from the aircraft directly into the cloud.

  Ground means of influence:

  Ground means of influence include generators of ice-forming aerosols, which disperse reagents using installations located on the ground.

  To date, with the direct participation of the Agency, the following have been developed:

• pyrotechnic ground aerosol generator NAG-07 and NAG-07M;
• liquid ground aerosol generator NAG-07A;
• fireworks type ice-forming aerosol generator GLA-105;
• Alazan-9 anti-hail missile and Eliya launcher for its launch.

  Aircraft means of influence:

• pyrotechnic cartridges PV-26-01 and PV-50M;
• pyrotechnic generators SAG-PM and SAG-26;
• SMK-0000 complex for discharging solid carbon dioxide granules;
• a device for seeding clouds with hygroscopic powders;
• aircraft systems SAG-26V and SAG-26KS.

  In addition to a set of technical means of influence, aircraft are equipped with a set of on-board equipment for measuring navigation parameters and the main parameters of clouds and the atmosphere necessary for making a decision, performing seeding and monitoring the results of impacts.

  Table 1 lists the parameters measured by the mini-VCI, installed by the Agency’s specialists on impact aircraft, during operational and production work on artificial precipitation control (RPM).

Table 1.

Parameters measured and recorded using a mini IVK

  An integral part of the technical means that ensure the success of the organization and conduct of work on artificial regulation of precipitation are the «Mobile Radar System for the Management of Works on RES», created at the Agency on the basis of a single-wave small-sized meteorological radar (MMRL) «Kontur-Meteo-01» and a radio data exchange system «Earth-Airboard-Earth» (Dispatching system).

  Dispatching systems provide:

• display of aircraft flight paths on navigation maps of the area and radar maps of cloud and precipitation distribution in real time, both on the on-board monitors and on the monitor of the ground operations control center;
• Obtaining radar maps of cloudiness and precipitation on board the aircraft;
• transmission of the coordinates of the impact points and the type of reagent used to the work control point;
• exchange of text messages between the ground Control Center and on-board aircraft operators.

  Discharge of granular solid carbon dioxide is carried out using an aircraft carbon dioxide dosing device (Fig. 1), consisting of a screw dosing device installed inside the aircraft fuselage and an outlet pipe designed to release carbon dioxide.

Rice. 1. Dosing device. General form

1 — screw dispenser; 2 — articulated stand; 3 — base (depending on the place of attachment on the aircraft, it can be of various shapes).

  To store granular carbon dioxide, special light, collapsible, thermally insulated containers with pallets are used, which make it possible to store carbon dioxide both on the ground and on board the aircraft for several days (Fig. 2).

a)                                      b)

Rice. 2. Collapsible isothermal container (a) with a pallet (b)

   To influence clouds with liquid nitrogen, aircraft are equipped with nitrogen generators of fine ice particles, consisting of Dewar vessels with liquid nitrogen, special nozzles with thermoelements that provide the necessary pressure for supplying liquid nitrogen from the vessels, and a pylon with nozzles designed to spray liquid nitrogen into clouds ( Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Generators of fine ice particles “GMCHL-A”

Discharge of packages with coarse powders used to destroy powerful convective clouds is carried out manually using special devices (Fig. 4).

a)                                                    b)

Rice. Fig. 4. Manual release of packages from the An-72 aircraft (a) and a conveyor with packages on the An-12 aircraft (b)

To shoot PV-26 squib cartridges with silver iodide (Fig. 5) and impact aircraft are equipped with systems that include a shooting control panel and hanging containers with UV-26 (ASO-2I) cassettes (Fig. 6).

Rice. 5. Igniter PV-26

Rice. 6. Hanging containers with cassettes type UV-26 (ASO-2I)

To shoot PV-50M squibs, aircraft are equipped with systems of the KDS-155 type (Fig. 7).

Rice. 7. System type KDS-155

The same systems are used to install SAG-26 and SAG-50M aircraft generators.