Give the water a route.
Intercept droplets on a structure and drain the liquid to storage. This is the most direct baseline for separating capture from delivery.
Test: water at collector outlet versus water entering the receiver.← THE PRODUCT PATHPROGRAM 03 / PONDFALLMAKE THE
MAKE THE
WATER LAND.
Explore how fog water could reach a defined receiver: through a collector, a directed droplet path, growth and settling, or living surfaces.
RESEARCH CONCEPT / UNTESTED · RECEIVER DELIVERY IS THE ENDPOINT
MECHANISMS / FOUR RESEARCH PATHSFOUR ROUTES.
FOUR ROUTES.
ONE WATER BALANCE.
PondFall is a family of hypotheses. Each route needs its own comparator, footprint and measurement of water actually reaching the receiver.
Change the trajectory.
Investigate whether forces or controlled airflow can move droplets toward a receiver. Published electrostatic capture on solid collectors is a starting point, not proof of direct-to-pond delivery.
Test: spatial deposition map and matched receiver gain.Change the droplet.
Ask whether a size change leads to greater receiver delivery before wind or evaporation removes the water. Growth, settling and collection are separate outcomes.
Test: wet size distributions, residence time and recovered mass.Learn from living surfaces.
Study interception by vegetation and the water’s subsequent path. Ecosystem deposition, plant uptake and drainage to storage have different endpoints.
Test: throughfall, stemflow, water use and receiver delivery.EVIDENCE / READING THE MECHANISMWHAT DOES
WHAT DOES
THE WORK SHOW?
Selected primary research, with the connection to this program made explicit. These are results from the named authors, not Weatherhill trials.
Living surfaces intercept fog.
Westbeld and colleagues measured fog-water flux over a Tillandsia carpet in the Atacama. The study highlights changing fluxes and the need for broader seasonal observations.
Our research question
Westbeld, Klemm, Grießbaum, Sträter, Larrain, Osses & Cereceda · 2009 · Annales GeophysicaeRead the original study ↗Could an interception architecture deliver a useful surplus after ecological water use and other losses?
A collector gives forces a destination.
Space-charge experiments show that electrical forces can direct droplets onto a solid collector.
Our research question
Damak & Varanasi · 2018 · Science AdvancesRead the original study ↗What additional evidence would establish delivery into a different receiver under open-air flow?
Settling depends on the population.
The UAE observations connect droplet spectra, liquid water content, visibility and estimated sedimentation velocity.
Our research question
Nelli et al. · 2024 · Atmospheric ResearchRead the original study ↗Can a measured size shift persist long enough to change where the water lands?
Capture needs an exit.
Kirigami-collector experiments investigate how geometry influences deposition and subsequent dripping.
Our research question
Li, Ran, Wang, Wang, Chen, Niu, Arratia & Yang · 2021 · Nature CommunicationsRead the original study ↗How much intercepted water reaches storage rather than remaining on a surface or leaving the collection boundary?
RESEARCH / VISUAL EVIDENCEGO TO THE
GO TO THE
RESEARCH.
Published figures from independent research. Open any image at full size, then follow its source.
ENLARGE ↗Observed size distributions over a Tillandsia carpet: droplet number and liquid water content peak at different sizes.
Westbeld, Klemm, Grießbaum, Sträter, Larrain, Osses & Cereceda · 2009 · Annales Geophysicae, Fig. 1. Original paper ↗ · CC BY 3.0. Figure reproduced without content changes; web display resized.
ENLARGE ↗Published time series of turbulent fog-water and sensible-heat flux over Tillandsia vegetation. Natural deposition includes changing and sometimes upward fluxes.
Westbeld, Klemm, Grießbaum, Sträter, Larrain, Osses & Cereceda · 2009 · Annales Geophysicae, Fig. 2. Original paper ↗ · CC BY 3.0. Figure reproduced without content changes; web display resized.
ENLARGE ↗Published experiments on droplet drainage from pyramidal kirigami collectors. A collecting surface and its drainage route act as one system.
Li, Ran, Wang, Wang, Chen, Niu, Arratia & Yang · 2021 · Nature Communications, Fig. 3. Original paper ↗ · CC BY 4.0. Figure reproduced without content changes; web display resized.TOOLKIT / PONDFALLCLOSE THE
CLOSE THE
WATER BALANCE.
An intervention can add water while the pond still loses water overall. This calculator keeps those two statements separate.
LIVE WORKBENCH / ILLUSTRATIVE INPUTS
Receiver balance & incremental gain
Enter hypothetical daily equivalent water depths over the receiver. These inputs describe a scenario; the tool does not predict deposition.
Enable JavaScript to calculate this scenario.
The comparison holds evaporation, rain and withdrawals equal between conditions. If the intervention changes them, measure that change separately. Overflow, changing surface area, seepage dynamics and initial storage are not modeled.
Formula & assumptions
1 mm over 1 m² = 1 L. Net change = area × (deposition + rain − evaporation) − withdrawals and other losses. Increment = intervention net − baseline net. Added energy = power × hours / 1000 kWh. Energy per incremental m³ = added kWh / (positive increment in L / 1000); undefined when the increment is zero or negative.
Electrostatics / OPEN TOOL ↗
Charged droplet drift
Inspect an ideal charged-droplet trajectory scale.
Engineering / OPEN TOOL ↗Residence & reset time
Compare transit and reset times with the proposed interaction.
Optics / OPEN TOOL ↗Droplet spectrum explorer
Distinguish a size shift from a change in water or extinction.
Engineering / OPEN TOOL ↗Whole-system energy ledger
Track water-normalized energy for a measured collection rate.
Optics / OPEN TOOL ↗Water, size & light
Explore why water mass and optical change can diverge.
Atmosphere / OPEN TOOL ↗Fog evaporation energy
Inspect the ideal latent-energy scale for evaporating fog.
The complete tools include methods, assumptions and export controls. Open all 15 tools →
NEXT / PROPOSED EXPERIMENTSBUILD THE
BUILD THE
EVIDENCE.
A staged program: measurements, comparisons and a decision before the next scale.
Choose one architecture and boundary
Define the receiver, relevant upwind volume and delivery path. State what observation would reject the proposed mechanism.
Advance when: the endpoint is water delivered and the comparator is physically meaningful.Map deposition in controlled flow
Use a spatial array of weighed receivers with inlet/outlet droplet measurements. Track water deposited outside the target and retained on hardware.
Advance when: a repeatable receiver gain has a closed mass accounting.Test an open boundary
Repeat matched comparisons across measured wind and fog conditions. Record natural deposition, rainfall, evaporation and water diverted from nearby surfaces.
Advance when: the effect persists in the defined conditions without relying on optical clearing alone.Compare useful delivery and cost
Report incremental water, whole-system energy, water quality, maintenance and ecological effects for the selected architecture.
Advance when: the next scale is supported by useful water and a credible operating boundary.CSV templates contain headers and units only. No measurements or results are prefilled.
SOURCE FILE / PRIMARY LITERATUREFOLLOW THE
FOLLOW THE
SOURCE.
Every paper below opens at its DOI. The figures above carry their own source and reuse license.
- Westbeld, Klemm, Grießbaum, Sträter, Larrain, Osses & Cereceda · 2009 · Annales GeophysicaeFog deposition to a Tillandsia carpet in the Atacama Desert ↗DOI: 10.5194/angeo-27-3571-2009
- Damak & Varanasi · 2018 · Science AdvancesElectrostatically driven fog collection using space charge injection ↗DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao5323
- Nelli et al. · 2024 · Atmospheric ResearchIn-situ measurements of fog microphysics: Visibility parameterization and estimation of fog droplet sedimentation velocity ↗DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107570
- Li, Ran, Wang, Wang, Chen, Niu, Arratia & Yang · 2021 · Nature CommunicationsAerodynamics-assisted, efficient and scalable kirigami fog collectors ↗DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25764-4
Research selection checked 13 October 2026. Program connections are Weatherhill’s proposed applications of the literature.
ONE RESEARCH DIRECTION / THREE PROGRAMSKEEP
KEEP
EXPLORING.
Instrument development, field water and controlled deposition share a measurement foundation.