silver iodide

noun

|Updated on: 19 Jun 2018

Definition of silver iodide

: a compound AgI that darkens on exposure to light and is used in photography, rainmaking, and medicine

Recent Examples of silver iodide from the Web

The silver iodide will allow water vapor to condense, forming clouds that will draw rain.

— laura yan, Popular Mechanics, "China Is Building a Massive Network of Chemical Rainmakers," 15 Apr. 2018
Some researchers question the safety of the rain system: releasing silver iodide at ground level can potentially cause health issues for workers in the area.

— laura yan, Popular Mechanics, "China Is Building a Massive Network of Chemical Rainmakers," 15 Apr. 2018
The rainmakers, developed by China's Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, will burn chemical fuel to release silver iodide into the air.

— laura yan, Popular Mechanics, "China Is Building a Massive Network of Chemical Rainmakers," 15 Apr. 2018
The South China Morning Post says that 500 test burners have been built in order to send silver iodide particles into the atmosphere over Tibet.

— The Economist, "Politics this week," 5 Apr. 2018
Others use airplanes to drop flares that generate silver iodide smoke into clouds, or to fly into a storm with flares strapped to their wings.

— sophie quinton, Washington Post, "‘Cloud seeding’ may make it snow, but will it reduce droughts in the West?," 26 Feb. 2018
Meanwhile, some American resorts are trying to coax more snow out of the clouds by seeding them with plumes of silver iodide.

— The Economist, "Trouble on the slopesWinter sports face a double threat, from climate and demographic change," 25 Jan. 2018
Pilots in sturdy airplanes would plunge into the eyewall and seed it with dry ice or silver iodide.

— sam kean, The Atlantic, "The Chemist Who Thought He Could Harness Hurricanes," 5 Sep. 2017
And after a two-decade federal experiment called Project Stormfury failed to control hurricanes with silver iodide seeding, the idea fell into scientific disfavor, too.

— National Geographic, "Can We Engineer a Way to Stop a Hurricane?," 13 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'silver iodide.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.