WMOD00306

• Project Name: Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project
• Title: Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project - Operations Plan - 1986-1987
• Date: 10/1/1986
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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Forecasti ng support wi 11 be ,provi ded between I October and I February to
encompass field season equipment installation and deinstallation.

Given that there are basically two sets of operations to be considered, ground
and aircraft seeding, treatment can be conducted during any time of the day or
night. Ground seeding will require a different operational readiness than
will aircraft seeding. These differences will be outlined in this operations

plan.

Certain restrictions will apply to the hours of aircraft operations based on
the number of aircraft flights per day or in any continuous 18-hour period.
These restrictions may require stand-down periods following extended periods

of operation. These will be highlighted in following sections.

Certain observational systems continue to operate whether seeding is called
for or not. These include all PROBE stations and attendant equipment, all
precipitation gauges, and the Skywater radiometer. However, PROBE and precip-
itation gauges as well as the Skywater radiometer will be monitored and con-

firmed to be at operational readiness prior to an experiment. These schedules

will be reviewed.

The seeding activities in SCPP will concentrate the effects over an irregular
shaped area encompassing the ARB, the Tahoe-Truckee and upper Mokelumne
basins. Aerial seeding will concentrate effects within the smaller dashed
area (fixed target) in the upper ARB. Both these areas are shown in fig. 1-1.

An exploratory randomized seeding experiment incorporating a fixed target is
outlined in Bureau of Reclamation (1985)*. The details of the conduct of this

* Bureau of Reclamation, 1985: Design of a Randomized Exploratory Fixed
Target Experiment on Widespread Shallow Orographic Clouds. Bureau of
Reclamation, Denver, CO. 52 pp.

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