It's really raining! The weather station is far from what it looks like, but it is actually around us.

▲ Weather controller in Red Alert 2

Recently, when watching others play red alert 2, I paid attention to the blow of "lightning storm" It is a "special weapon" in the game to create clouds over enemy bases through weather controllers and use lightning to strike, injuring people and destroying things. If put into reality, it is a meteorological weapon, a form of artificially changing the environmental state to achieve its goal.

▲ Lightning storms in the game are extremely destructive, so what is the effect of this weapon in reality?

In fact, in ancient times, human beings have realized the great influence of the environment on combat. In ancient Chinese art books, the types, conditions and implementation methods of water hammer and fire hammer are discussed, including the content of changing the environment. The ancients used water or fire to change the combat environment, thus creating conditions for victory. This is the embryonic form of environmental warfare. Typically, in the Chu-Han War in 203 BC, in order to defeat the Qi-Chu allied forces, Han Xin secretly sent people to cut off the upper reaches of the Weihe River, induced the allied forces to pursue it, and then decided to fight back quickly and wipe out the enemy crossing the river in one fell swoop. Among the four classical novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there is a classic story of Guan Yu's "seven armies flooded", which is also a man-made flood to achieve operational purposes.

▲ Guan Yu's drive of the Seventh Army is only a story, but it is not uncommon for ancient people to use water to achieve their combat goals.

In the modern sense, environmental warfare refers to the operation that uses science and technology to artificially change the environmental state in order to achieve a certain military purpose. Environmental warfare, also known as geophysical warfare, mainly includes artificially controlling or creating clouds, storms, lightning, magnetic storms, rainstorms, floods, mudslides, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis and the destruction of the ozone layer. And by artificially inducing great natural forces, or directly killing the enemy, we create operational conditions that are beneficial to ourselves and unfavorable to the enemy, thus affecting the progress and outcome of the war. The theoretical study of environmental warfare shows that great natural forces can be induced by applying less energy in a specific environment. For example, during the Cold War, the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries took great interest in the earthquake induced by underground nuclear explosions and conducted special research.

▲ Schematic diagram of the former Soviet Union using underground nuclear explosions to extinguish oil field fires, then it is also possible to use small equivalent nuclear weapons to induce major earthquakes, thus creating devastating geological disasters for hostile countries.

Meteorological warfare is an integral part of the environmental war, aiming at achieving certain military objectives by artificially influencing the weather or climate. Also known as weather war and climate war, it is mainly to use relevant technologies to create meteorological conditions that are beneficial to oneself and unfavorable to the enemy, and directly or indirectly attack the enemy. Meteorological warfare began in World War II. 1September, 943, the 5th Army of the United States successfully built a fog barrier with a length of 5km and a width of1.4km on the Italian Volturno River, which better ensured the combat troops to cross the Voltuno River smoothly with minimum casualties. In the later period of the war, in order to protect its important industrial bases and military bases from the bombing of the Anglo-American Coalition forces, Germany also spread a large number of atomizing agents in these areas to artificially create fog all over the sky.

During the Vietnam War, the United States conducted a meteorological warfare in Vietnam. In the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, the U.S. military not only used artificial fog barriers to cover the infiltration of South Vietnamese intelligence units into the north, but also sprayed a large amount of rainfall catalyst over the predetermined area, causing heavy rain, flash floods, destroying railways and dams, muddy roads and traffic disruption. 197 1 year, in order to undermine the support of northern Vietnam to the south, the US military carried out artificial rainfall on Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main transportation line of Vietnam's anti-US military supplies. At that time, the US military used WC- 130 meteorological reconnaissance plane and RF-4C reconnaissance plane to drop catalyst to catalyze Leng Yun, causing heavy rain. The heavy rain washed away roads, making it impossible for vehicles to pass, and the transportation of goods from northern Vietnam to southern Vietnam was seriously blocked.

▲ The WC- 130 weather reconnaissance plane of the US Air Force participated in artificial rainfall operations during the Vietnam War, causing floods to destroy northern Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Meteorological warfare's main methods are as follows:

(1) artificial fog, fog. Artificial fogging is to create smoke by applying fogging agent to cover one's own actions and interfere with the enemy's actions; Artificial fog elimination is to eliminate clouds and dense fog in airspace by heating, cooling or sowing catalysts, improve visibility and ensure our own observation and navigation of aircraft and ships.

(2) Artificial rainfall. Artificial precipitation enhancement is used to increase the precipitation of enemy countries or enemy activity areas, causing heavy rain and heavy rain, affecting enemy actions and making their combat materials moist. It even caused flooding, washed away roads and bridges, interrupted traffic, and made it difficult for the enemy to maneuver and replenish. At present, artificial rainfall is successful in military application.

③ Man-made drought. By using relevant meteorological control technology, the weather in an upstream area is controlled to create a long-term drought for downstream hostile countries and enemy deployment areas. In the 1970s, the United States carried out an artificial drought relief operation against Cuba.

▲ At present, artificial rainfall is relatively mature in military applications.

④ Artificial guidance of typhoon. Putting silver iodide smoke bombs or other chemical catalysts into the typhoon (hurricane) cloud area can change the path of the typhoon (hurricane) and lead it to the enemy country as needed, thus destroying enemy personnel and military facilities.

⑤ Artificial cooling and heating. Spreading sunlight-absorbing substances in hostile countries or enemy-controlled areas, resulting in unbearable cold weather; Or sow substances that absorb long-wave radiation on the ground, so that the climate suddenly rises and produces extreme heat.

⑥ Manual control of lightning. By artificially inducing and eliminating lightning, the charge in the cloud can be neutralized, transferred or released in advance to control the generation of lightning and ensure the safety of military operations in the air and on the ground.

In addition, the ozone content in a certain space is changed by some means to create bad weather; Or sow chemicals during artificial rainfall in the low-altitude atmosphere, and create acid rain to corrode enemy equipment. , is also considered to be meteorological warfare's combat methods.

▲ Schematic diagram of the track of Typhoon No.24 in Tan Mei in 2065438+2008. Some friends whimsically think that it is the result of our use of meteorological weapons (this is simply a fantasy, we will never admit 2333), but there was indeed an attempt to artificially guide typhoons before.

Meteorological warfare is out of control and in double jeopardy. The atmosphere is a very huge system, and the factors that determine its development and change are very complicated. Once you use it wrongly, or you are not sure about the weather, it is possible to reverse the weather, that is, to develop in a direction that is beneficial to the enemy and not conducive to yourself. However, due to the great destructiveness and concealment of meteorological warfare, some countries still invest technology and funds in relevant research in areas far away from home, and try to study meteorological weapons for actual combat. At present, except for artificial rainfall, artificial fog making and fog elimination, other ideas are still in the research and experimental stage, which is far from the requirements of actual use.

In a short time, we really can't see the application of weapon-grade meteorological technology in actual combat. As early as 1976 12 10, the 3rd1session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Environmental Modification Techniques for Military or Any Other Hostile Purpose, which stopped environmental modification for military purposes in the form of a convention. Approved by the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th NPC, China joined the Convention on April 27th, 2005.