In the regions of the world where dryness is experienced most part of the year, water is a luxury commodity. These regions are more susceptible to drought, than other regions with a more temperate climatic conditions. In one of my recent article, I wrote on the effects drought has on an area and on the people living in that region. These effects are so much, the number of deaths from starvation is so much. For this reason, there is need for man to discover a means of generating water even in these dry regions that are more prone to drought so as to provide relief for those living in that area. Since man have run out of ideas on how to do that, which better direction should man seek for idea if not in nature.
Nature is filled with so much wonders, the ideas hidden in nature are inexhaustible. It is not surprising that after a careful search into nature, man discovered the ways of the beetle which dwells in the desert where there is no single river, nor well or any other source of water for drinking, yet it survives. A further study revealed that this beetle manages to keep itself alive by trapping water on its body. Application of this idea gotten from the stenocara beetle of the Namib Desert resulted to the invention of the fog collector
[Flickr.com](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ants_in_my_pants/2095476506)
Before we get to understand how man exploited this great idea from nature, we need to know what a fog is, how it's formed and the different types of fog.
**WHAT IS A FOG**
A fog is a visible "cloud" of water droplet or ice that is suspended in the air very close to the surface of the earth. The source for the moisture in the fog can come from any nearby water source like a lake, ocean or even any marshes or moist ground closeby. Fogs are influenced majorly by the topography of the area, wind conditions and the water bodies close-by. Though fogs have really affected human activities as it reduces visibility to less than 1km, making travelling and warefare almost impossible, harnessing of fog so as to generate water have showed how true the saying that "in every dark cloud, there is a silver lining" is. Fogs occur in early hours of the morning or late at night.
**HOW FOGS ARE FORMED**
The major process involved in the formation of fog is condensation. When water vapor gets added to the air, it condenses into tiny droplets of water in the air. This process repeats itself till a point is reached when these water droplets becomes large enough, up to the extent that they obscure visibility. At that point, what we have is a fog. Some of the ways by which water gets added to the air are
- Movement of cold or warm air over warmer water.
- Water evaporating from the surface of water bodies due to the heat of the sun.
- The fall of precipitation.
- Transpiration from plants
- As a result of air lifting over mountains.
[Pixabay.com: Fog in the desert](https://pixabay.com/en/fog-tree-desert-sky-earth-beige-240075/)
When these water vapors gets added to the air, they condense on particles in the air like ice, dust e.t.c forming cloud in the process. These particles are known as condensation nuclei. Normally, fog form when the weather condition of a place is very humid, but they can also form in lower humid conditions. Most time, fogs form when the temperature difference between the air and dew point is below 25°C.
**TYPES OF FOG**
Fogs are classified based on how the the cooling that resulted to the condensation occurred.
**Radiation fog :-** This type of fog is formed as a result of the land losing its heat after sunset through the process of infrared thermal radiation when the sky is clear and winds speeds are low. The cooling ground in turn, cools the air that is directly adjacent to it by conduction. This causes the temperature of the adjacent air to fall up to dew point resulting to formation of fog. Radiation fogs occur only at night and they get easily dispersed by the morning sunlight. But during the winter months, radiation fogs can persist in areas bounded by high ground through out the day.
**Ground fog :-** The ground fog stays very much close to the ground. It doesn't obscure up to 60% of the sky, and due to its closeness to the ground, it doesn't extend to the base of any overhead cloud.
**Evaporation/Steam fog :-** This fog is formed over water bodies that has a much colder air on top of it (about 9°C colder). An example of evaporation fog is the lake effect fog. The condensation that occurs, occur die to the mixture of cold air with the air that is in direct contact with the surface of the water body. Also convention process is also involved because the water is much warmer than the air above it. Due to this convection, this mixed air rises and thus enhances the fog formation process causing the water to appear as if it is steaming.
**Advection fog :-** This kind of fog is formed when a moist air moves over a cold surface by advection and is cooled. ,Advection fog occur mostly times in areas of cold water up welling and also at sea, especially whenever moist air meets cooler waters. Another causes of advection fog is if there is a enough temperature difference over water or bare ground.
[Picture by Joonas Suominen - wikicommon CC BY-SA 3.0
Advection fog](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Advection_fog_in_Helsinki_2014.jpg)
**Frontal fog :-** Frontal fog forms when a raindrop which fell from air which is relatively warmer evaporates into an air that is relatively cooler and is also positioned closer to the earth's surface causing it to become saturated.
**Freezing fog :-** These forged consist majorly of tiny droplets of supercooled water that freezes when it comes in contact with a surface.
**Precipitation fog :-** When precipitation occur, they fall into the drier air below the cloud. Sue to the difference in temperature, the liquid droplet evaporates and turns into water vapor. When these water vapors cool down, at dewpoint, it condenses and fog forms.
**Hail fog :-** This fog occur mainly in areas that experience significant hail. It forms shortly after a hail fall. As the hail melts by absorbing the heat of the air close to it, it cools the air and in the process it evaporates.
**Upslope fog :-** When moist air goes up a slope, mountain or hill, it condenses and forms fog through adiabatic cooling and also due to the drop of pressure with increasing altitude.
**FOG AND DESERT**
A type of desert known as the fog desert receives the majority of moisture it needs to sustain the lives of animal and plant in it from fog drip. It is the fog drip in those areas that provides the necessary moisture for agricultural development in those areas. Examples of fog deserts in the world are the Atacama Desert of coastal Chile, the Namib desert in Namibia, the Baja California desert of Mexico e.t.c.
[Pixabay.com: The Atacama desert](https://pixabay.com/en/atacama-desert-desert-dry-chile-594595/)
The driest desert in the world is the Atacama Desert. It has a plant coverage of about 50% in the center of where the fog mostly occur. The Atacama desert is able to sustain the life in it due to its status as a fog desert.
Foggy air have a relative humidity of above 95%. There are two major ways in which fogs are formed in deserts. The first is when hot humid air interacts with a cooler object like the mountain. As the wait air touches the cooler object, fog is formed. Another way by which fog is formed in deserts is if the desert is close to a coast that has some cold currents that passes through it. As the sun heats up the desert, the air in it gets heated up and it then blown towards the ocean were it losses the heat and forms fog. This fog formed on the surface of the ocean is then blown inland by the ocean breeze.
**FOG COLLECTION**
Fog collection is a technique for harnessing water that is environmentally friendly and is also not limited to the environmental condition of that area. Fog collection is aimed at extracting the water in fog by using vertical canvas which are large in size. When these fog come in contact with the canvas, they form water droplet. These water droplets then flows down the canvas and is then captured by the trough positioned directly below the it. We refer to this trough as a fog fence.
**INSPIRATION FROM NATURE: THE STENOCARA BEETLE OF THE NAMIB DESERT**
The darkling beetles are little bugs which dwells in areas known for there very severe and harsh dry conditions. Few species dwell in forest as plant scavengers. Belonging to the family of beetles known as Tenebrionidae, most of the species in this family are omnivorous, feeding on stuffs like rotting woods, decaying leaves, fresh plant matter e.t.c. They also feed on dead insects and fungi (both those in larva and those in adult stage).
[Picture by Schnooby from wikicommon CC BY-SA 3.0
A stenocara Beetle of the Namib desert](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Onymacris_unguicularis_in_Namib_Desert.jpg)
Despite living majorly in areas with little or no water, surprisingly, the stenocara beetle of the Namib Desert (a member of this family) do not only survive such conditions, but they are also one of the most lived insects with a life span of up to 2 years. Nature made them in such a way that they are master water collectors. They have very hard shells that contains tiny grooves, with all the grooves facing one direction, where water condenses on. This condensed water then gets channeled to their mouth.
**THE MECHANISM INVOLVED**
The major process involved in fog collection is the condensation process. Whenever the water vapor that is in the air (which is also what makes up the fog) touches a cold surface, it loses some of its heat and then condenses into small droplets of liquid water. This droplets formed as a result of the condensation process is known as dew. A practical example of this phenomenon is observed in leaves of plants and blades of grasses. I am sure you must have observed that during the early hours of the morning, droplets of water can be found on leaves of trees, and on grasses even though, it is quite obvious to everyone that there was no rainfall in the night.
The darkling beetle traps water in the fog by facing the back back of its body to the direction of the foggy wind. This action is known as fog-basking, and if the darkling beetle is not positioned in this manner, water collection will be almost impossible. When the fog touches the body of the sterocara beetle, it condenses. Another attribute of the darkling beetle that makes its water collection possible is the fact that its shell is made of slick wax which has much resemblance to Teflon. This enables the water to flow easily off it's body into its mouth.
[Picture by GFDL - Wikicommom CC BY-SA 3.0
The Namib beetle faces the back of its body to the direction of the wind to enable it collect water from fog](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Namib_desert_beetle.jpg)
**THE DIFFERENT INVENTIONS AND TECHNIQUES FOR FOG COLLECTION**
Today, man have discovered a way on how to replicate the mechanism used by the water to harness water from thin air. The following inventions have been made by man for fog collection.
**Liquid collecting permeable structure**
Developed by a research team in Harvard, this method uses a surface that looks much like the beetle's shell. This surface has up to hundred grooves designed in such a way that they grow more wider at the bottom so as to allow the water collected to run off more easily. Also, just like the shell of the darkling beetle, the surface has a slick waxy nature which also enables the water to run off the surface. This invention has a high efficiency than the net method and with it, water have been provided to those areas that have it in very short supply.
**A water collection net**
One of the inventions by man for collection of fog is the Fog catcher, a large net is hung in between two poles positioned upright, with the net faced in a direction such that it's large surface area receives the maximum amount of wind. This enables the net to trap a large amount of fog. As the fog goes through the net, it condenses, leaving behind droplets of water. When these droplets gets saturated, they flow down and they are collected.
[Picture by Nicole saffie - wikicommon CC BY-SA 2.0
A fog catcher](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atrapanieblas_en_Alto_Patache.jpg)
Examples of countries that makes use of this technique are Chile and Israel. Chile has a large amount of fog, thus, Fog collection is ready achieve there. Most places in Isreal are desert, despite that, this technique had made them one of the leading countries in the field of agriculture.
**Dew Bank Bottle**
The dew bank bottle is another amazing invention in which fog collection is actualized. It is much easier to set up than the former methods. Just as the name implies, the dew bank bottle is a bottle made of Stainless Steel. Stainless steel has a cold property. lt's degree of coldness is quite higher than that of some other metals. Due to this cold property, when it is placed outside at night, water droplets condenses on it surface. Openings are been made on the surface of the bottle, through these openings, these condensed water enters into the bottle. This opening is made in such a way that it allows only just water to penetrate through it, thus, you have nothing to worry about contamination.
So as to increase the surface area needed for water collection, the bottle is made to have an uneven surface. This way, more water is collected by the bottle. By morning, the water collected in the bottle can be drank even without boiling, as it is free from germs. The bottle can collect at least 1 glass of water per night. Well, what do you think of that. This invention is of great use, it can provide water for the children in the desert.
**IMPACT OF FOG COLLECTOR ON THE ENVIRONMENT**
There have never been an technological invention so perfect, having zero effect on the surrounding like fog collection, even from the installation to the maintenance. The process does not require any source of energy, there is nothing like toxic waste being released into the atmosphere.
The water that is harvested from fogs is so neat and clean, with no bacteria and other microorganisms. In fact the water harvested from fog collection is not only good for drinking, it is also good for plant irrigation.
[Pixabay.com: Clean water](https://pixabay.com/en/drinking-water-filter-singapore-1235578/)
**MY THOUGHTS**
##### The benefits of this amazing discovery/invention can not be over emphasized. With the fog collector, water can be collected from anywhere in the world, even in Atacama desert which is the driest desert in the world. With this invention, people living in the desert need not worry about water. With the fog collector, travelers and tourist always have water, since the fog collector replenishes the water at night. The fog collector is a solution to drought since we can get the water needed for agricultural production from fog.
##### There is one thing every person in the world agrees to, regardless of religon or belief, it is that, the secrets that are hidden in nature are inexhaustible. Just the discovery of the ways of the sterocara beetle of the Namib desert have resulted to the provision of water for those living in areas with low supply of water. If man can be able to discover at least half of the secrets that are hidden in nature, you can imagine how beautiful the world would be.
**REFERENCES**
[The stenocara beetle of the Namib desert](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenocara_gracilipes)
[Harvesting water from thin air](http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/03/07/the-fog-collectors-harvesting-water-from-thin-air/)
[The darkling beetle](https://asknature.org/strategy/water-vapor-harvesting/#.Ws8pVGko_qA)
[Harvesting of the cloud - The verge](https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/8/7354247/harvesting-the-clouds-how-to-make-water-out-of-fog)
[Atacama desert](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert)
[Fog Collection](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_collection)
[Fog Desert](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_desert)
[Fog Wpedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog)
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