WMOD00287

• Title: The National Weather Modification Plan
• Prepared For: CAO Subcommittee on Weather Modification
• Prepared By: The Working Group of the CAO Subcommittee on Weather Modification
• Date: 2/13/1981
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

greater (45 percent and 20 percent, respectively) on seed days chan on no~
seed days, but there is a reasonable possibility that this could have been due
to chance.

the second phase of the Florida experiment (FACE 2) began in 1978.
Seeding experiments were conducted in the summers of 1978, 1979, and 1980.
The focus of FACE-2 is confirmation of the favorable results indicated in
FACE-i. The FACE randomized seeding program was concluded at the end of the
1980 season. Da ta analys is will continue through FY 1981 and 1982. FACE will
end in FY 1982 with the publication of the final results.

3. Precipitation Enhancement Project (FY 1980--$0.2 Million)

The Precipitation Enhancement Project (PEP) is a weather modification
program of the World Meteorological Organization (WHO). Current activities
include investigations of meteorological conditions at a site in Spain to
determine if they fulfill the minimum requirements handed down by the Seventh
World Meteorological Congress as necessary conditions for PEP. NOAA, in
cooperation with NSF, provided funds in 1979 and 1980 to contract for a cloud
physics research aircraft to participate in the 3-month field measurement
program. Using their instrumented Beech Queen Air, University of Wyoming
scientists collected cloud data on 50 flights and conducted on-site data
processing and interpretation during the period February 10 through May 10,
1980.

4. Precipitation Augmentation for Crops Experiment (FY 1980--$0.3 Million)

The Precipitation Augmentation for Crops Experiment (PACE) is a
multidisciplinary scientific program to assess the potential of rain
modification in the Midwest for the ultimate benefit of agriculture. The
overall program is envisioned as a sequential four-step effort. If pre-
experimental investigations are successful, they will be followed by
a~ploratory seeding, a confirmatory seeding project, and a final assessment
including all the agricultural, societal, and environmental impacts resulting
from precipitation modification. Each phase will be initiated after
successful completion of the preceding step.

NOAA supported a few cloud research flights in and around Illinois during
the summers of 1977 and 1978 as an initial part of the pre-experiment step in
PACE. The results from study of these microphysical measurements or
Midwestern clouds, with supporting studies of radar data, were encouraging,
and NOAA has increased its support in 1980 with the help of a Congressional
wri te-in to the NOAA budget.

5. Nor~h Dakota/Utah Evaluacion Program (FY 1980--50.5 Million)

As a result or an add-on to the FY 1980 NOAA budget by the House-Senate
Conference, NOAA has initiated a program to "develop, under contract, national
applicable evaluation technologies for two types of operational weather
modification projects--summertime rain enhancement and wintertime snowpack
augmentation--based on the North Dakota and Utah ongoing state-sponsored

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