Laserfiche WebLink
<br />generation and land utilization on the weather should be closely coordinated <br />with efforts of the National Weather Modification Program, described in this <br />plan, and the recently established 'National Climate Program. <br /> <br />A balanced research program in intentional weather modification must <br />pursue a wide range of objectives. It must learn more about clouds and cloud <br />systems. The program must determine natural weather conditions and their <br />variability and develop more powerful procedures for evaluating the effects of <br />seeding. It must refine and test seeding hypotheses, develop effective and <br />environmentally safe seeding materials and reliable delivery systems, <br />demonstrate the economic value of the techniques, and explore the social <br />impacts. It must consider not only the ~ediate project area but also the <br />total area affected by the modification activities. It must devise <br />comprehensive data management procedures to systematically retrieve, archive, <br />and inventory the vast quantity of data produced by the program. The program <br />must also assess, geographic and seasonal differences in the important factors <br />that determine whether a weather modification technology developed in one area <br />can be applied in new areas. <br /> <br />Several criteria are important in determining priorities in a weather <br />modification research program. Key questions, for example, concern what can <br />be done now and what is most desirable or most beneficial. Societal factors, <br />including public attitudes and the legal climate for cloud seeding, must be <br />considered. Availability of new knowledge or scientific breakthroughs will <br />affect priorities as will the availability of scientific talent, research <br />equipment, and other resources. The priorities for projects within the <br />programs to be discussed in the next chapters are based on these <br />considerations. <br /> <br />Because of the large benefits that may eventually accrue to agriculture, <br />energy development and production, water quality, and municipalities and <br />industry, research to develop a precipitation enhancement technology has been <br />assigned a high priority in the National Weather Modification Program. <br />Precipitation enhancement is based on the premise that seeding will modify <br />cloud processes in a way that will cause natural precipitation to be <br />increased. However, cloud behavior is strongly dependent upon geography and <br />time, cloud characteristics, and the way in which it is stimulated. <br />Sociopolitical, agronomic, and environmental conditions are also dependent on <br />geography, imposing diverse conditions on both weather modification research <br />and application. Therefore, several field ~periments are proposed involving <br />different cloud types, seasons, geographic r-egions, and seeding techniques. <br /> <br />The effectiveness of seeding winter clouds in the western mountains to <br />enhance snowfall is close to scientific acceptance. Confirmatory experiments <br />are needed. Since the efficiency of precipitation from these clouds depends <br />strongly upon the underlying terrain and other local factors, multiple <br />experiments are required to establish the overall viabili~J of seeding and its <br />effectiveness at specific locations. <br /> <br />~tperiments also will be conducted to enhance rainfall from convective <br />clouds in agricultural regions during the summer growing season. Many major <br /> <br />- 28 - <br />