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INTRODUCTION <br /> The North Dakota Cloud Modification Project (NDCMP) is a non-randomized <br />summertime (June, July, and August) cloud seeding program in western North Dakota. <br />The NDCMP has two objectives: to suppress hail damage on crops and to increase <br />precipitation during the growing season. This study evaluated the ability to detect initial <br />convective growth with NDCMP radars. <br /> Cloud seeding in North Dakota started in the 1950’s by using ground-based generators <br />to seed clouds. In the late 1950’s, there were several years when farmers experienced <br />significant or total crop loss due to hail damage. In the early 1960’s as a response to the <br />crop losses, two pilots and a farmer in Bowman County, North Dakota founded Weather <br />Modification Incorporated (WMI) becoming the first in the state to use aircraft to seed <br />clouds. Their primary goal was to suppress hail, but a secondary objective of increasing <br />rainfall was quickly added. In the mid 1960’s, radar was added to increase the lead-time in <br />identifying ideal clouds for seeding. In 1976, the state of North Dakota took over all cloud <br />seeding operations in the state and provided meteorological support and contracting for <br />cloud seeding equipment. <br /> Radar traditionally has been used to identify convective weather. The NDCMP <br />concerns itself with all scales of convection. Radar is being used in increasingly <br />sophisticated ways as a tool for determining which, when, where, and how clouds should <br />be treated to obtain the desired effect. The NDCMP uses weather radar for weather <br />surveillance and cloud treatment opportunity recognition, cloud treatment and operations <br />coordination, data collection for post-season evaluation to determine treatment <br />effectiveness, and data collection for establishing radar climatology (NDCMP 2001). <br />6 <br />