BOARD00151 ‎(3)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 3/12/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Animas-La Plata Project Updates - Intergovernmental Agreement Establishing the ALP Operations and Maintenance Association and Proposed Concept Paper
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

"

.

.

.

source of water augmentation to be pursued and is one of the cooperative agreements between the
Seven Colorado River Basin states.

8.

WRF -Chern Modeling for Cloud Seeding Evaluation

Beneficiary/Gran tee/Co n tractor:
Amount of Request:

CWCB, NOAA, Local Water Planners
$50,000 Ranking:

Medium

Product Produced: Improving the efficiency of cloud seeding numerical models is needed to
improve the effectiveness of the cloud seeding program in Colorado. WRF-CHEM can be used to
make seed vs. no seed decisions and address both timing and forecast assessment issues. When
investigating the effectiveness of cloud seeding efforts, there are numerous key questions to answer.
How much of the seeding materials released from the surface make it to the cloud base before
leaving the mountainous regions? What amount of the seeding material is trapped near the surface
by topography and prevailing weather conditions? How can seeding operations be economically
evaluated in near real time using numerical models? WRF-CHEM can be used to look closely at
typical cloud seeding programs in Colorado. One of the key criticisms by scientists in the discipline
of ground based wintel1ime cloud seeding is that cloud seeding generator placement doesn't allow
for maximum efficiency due to the limitation of operations on private land. This would be a study of
material transport and diffusion, and it can investigate cloud pollution regimes in Colorado to make
recommendations of generator placement in Colorado.

Water Planning Relationship: This relationship has ties to global warming and climate change.
WRF-CHEM has been used to make ties between sources of pollutants and cloud compositions. The
relationship relates to air pollution and cloud seeding solutions and their interactions.

Recommendation: Staff gives a medium recommendation for funding of this project because
although it compliments the NOAA-FX NET project, it is the logical next step when funding
becomes available.

9. Use of Gap Filling Radar to Improve Flood Warnings

Beneficiary/Gran tee/Co ntractor:
Amount of Request:

CWCB, National Severe Storms Lab., Local Water Planners
$60,000 Ranking: Low

Product Produced: A mobile Doppler radar would be deployed and data would be compared with
the National Weather Service KGJX WSR-88D near Grand Junction, CO. Correction factors would
be developed and applied to the KGJX radar to improve rainfall estimates which will, in turn,
improve flash flood warnings and hydrologic forecasts. Currently, weather radars in the western
U.S. scan high above the ground in many locations resulting in erroneous rainfall estimates. This
project will demonstrate the ability to determine correction factors by collecting data beneath the
scanning horizon ofNWS radars.

This project will be coordinated with the Grand Junction NWS Forecast Office (responsible for flash
flood warnings) and the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (responsible for river forecasts).
Data will be processed using the NSSL NMQ system, a conduit for implementing research results
into operational systems. Data will be also used to validate satellite rainfall algorithms. Deliverables
include reports and publications illustrating data sets and results from applying correction factors.
Results will apply to the entire WSR-88D network and associated rainfall estimates.

19