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61.1 kg of SF6 gas remaining on June 5, 2005. Thus, there were sufficient stores of flight hours, salt and gas to <br />continue the SPECTRA II studies on a limited basis if the opportunity presented itself. <br />3.0 RESULTS OF ANALYSES <br />The four most productive hygroscopic test cases obtained on three days (May 14, 25, and 31, 2005) were <br />analyzed intensively. Detailed documentary information on all cases is provided in the extensive appendices <br />(i.e., in Appendices C, D and E). Each case involved the scramble of project aircraft to clouds that appeared <br />suitable for hygroscopic seeding followed by their base salt-powder seeding and the concurrent release of SF <br />6 <br />tracer gas. Although it would have been desirable to randomize the treatment for the prospective test cases, <br />there were not enough opportunities to warrant treatment randomization. Rather than attempt to infer the effects <br />of seeding through case-by-case randomization, the effects of seeding were inferred within the clouds of each <br />case by comparing the portions of the clouds containing the SFtracer gas that was released concurrently with <br />6 <br />the salt-powder nucleant with those portions of the clouds that did not contain the nucleant. This proved to be an <br />effective analysis strategy. <br /> Although everything was in place for a successful SPECTRA II effort, the tiny sample size of four test <br />cases proved to be a major disappointment. Further, the clouds in two of the four cases became too strong for <br />safe repeated aircraft penetration. Despite these problems, it was possible nevertheless to document strong <br />hygroscopic seeding signatures, having the form of low concentrations of anomalously large (> 30 micron <br />diameter) cloud drops in regions of detected SFtracer gas, while no such drops existed immediately before <br />6 <br />entering and immediately after exiting the region of tracer gas. In the last of the four cases, when it was possible <br />using the unique tracking system to return repetitively to the seeded region, raindrops (D > 100 microns) <br />developed in the regions of large cloud drops. These findings, indicating enhanced coalescence and raindrop <br />development in the seeded regions, are consistent with the hygroscopic seeding conceptual model. <br /> The maximization of the information content from the limited cases obtained in SPECTRA II was made <br />possible by the use of SF tracer gas and by the powerful real-time tracking and visualization system that was <br />6 <br />used in the experiments. Without this real-time capability to get precisely back to the seeded cloud and the <br />ability to identify the seeded regions within them, little definitive would have been obtained in SPECTRA II. <br />These must be integral components of any future hygroscopic seeding study. <br /> This unique system would have permitted the testing of the efficacy of seeding with hygroscopic flares <br />if it had been possible to obtain the needed hygroscopic flares and if the weather had permitted it. Although <br />such tests were not possible in SPECTRA II, they should be made in future studies having the goal of <br />documenting the effect of hygroscopic seeding on cloud microstructure and precipitation development. <br />4.0 THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SEEDING EFFECTS <br />Cloud modeling and the simulation of seeding effects has always been a goal of the Texas weather modification <br />research effort. Thus, cloud modeling and the simulation of seeding effects played a major role in SPECTRA II. <br />Dr. Alexander Khain of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem headed-up the modeling component of SPECTRA <br />II with input from Dr. Rosenfeld. Hygroscopic seeding was simulated using the 2-dimensional Hebrew <br />University cloud model (HUCM). The model is based on solving an equation system for the size distribution <br />functions of cloud hydrometeors and aerosols (both natural and seeded). The model is specially oriented forthe <br />7 <br />