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Recent maintenance and repair work at Marsfield involved removing
panels from the offices along what is now known as the "Astro corridor".
The backs of the panels revealed these rooms were formerly the Cloud Physics Lab!
The Division of Cloud Physics was formed in 1972 from a research group
within the Division of Radiophysics. Investigation of rain and cloud
physics was initiated after the Second World War by
Taffy Bowen, the Chief of the Division of Radiophysics, and led by him
until his retirement in 1971. The Division of
Cloud Physics ceased operations in April 1983 when it merged with the
Division of Atmospheric Physics to form the Division of Atmospheric
Research.
Paul Holper summarised the research in 2001:
"CSIRO has shown that in Australia cloud seeding is effective only in a
limited number of weather conditions. Cloud seeding will never break
droughts; cloudless skies will never produce rain. In fact, many types
of clouds cannot be successfully seeded. Cloud seeding is most likely
to be effective when used on cumulus or stratiform clouds in air
forced up over mountains."
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