Beijing recruits scientists to tackle air pollution, but doesn't say how

China pioneered cloud-seeding to induce rain - now it wants to use technology to clear the air.

Beijing will start experimenting with measures to disperse its notorious smog on heavily polluted days, vice-mayor Lin Keqing told a work conference yesterday, according to Xinhua.

Lin did not elaborate on the measures, but his announcement followed the release last month by the China Meteorological Administration of a document which said all provincial-level meteorological bureaus should be able to artificially reduce smog by 2015.

During the Olympic Games in 2008, Beijing fired 1,100 silver iodide rockets to disperse rain clouds on the eve of the opening ceremony. Some have proposed the same measure could help wash away the fine pollutants clogging the air on smoggy days.

But some meteorologists are not so keen on the idea.

"Weather modification to reduce smog remains a very sensitive topic … and the research is still quite limited," said a Beijing-based expert on weather modification, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Simply speaking, on some smoggy days the atmospheric conditions may not be suitable for cloud-seeding." He explained that on heavily polluted days there were simply too many particles in the air to make cloud-seeding effective.