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<br />10 <br /> <br />3.0 FIELD EXPERIMENT <br /> <br />The experiment was conducted over the Continental Divide between <br /> <br />Minturn (MIN) and Fairp1ay (FPY), the upwind and downwind stations res- <br /> <br />pectively. Camp Hale (CRA) is the centrally located station (Figure 2). <br /> <br />3.1 Topography <br /> <br />The three radiosonde stations are located approximately along the <br /> <br />line of heading 1500 (from 3300). The line runs from Minturn through <br /> <br />the Eagle River Valley for about 19 km. to just north of Camp Hale, <br /> <br />About 20 km. downstream of Camp Hale is the Continental Divide - the <br /> <br />highest point of the ridge. On the average, the ridge line is about <br /> <br /> <br />1500 meters (5,000 ft.) higher than Camp Hale. The topography of the <br /> <br /> <br />area is favorable to orographic snow events when the wind is from 3300. <br /> <br /> <br />Fairplay is located 38 km. down the line from Camp Hale. <br /> <br />Although the ridge is a blocking ridge, some of the lower air may <br /> <br />be diverted south to the Arkansas Valley, after passing Camp Hale, with- <br /> <br />out following the 1500 heading. The results to be presented below show <br /> <br />that this diversion probably occurred in our case but the diverted air <br /> <br />was largely below cloud base and therefore would not contribute signi- <br /> <br />ficantly to the water budget. <br /> <br />3.2 Meteorological Conditions <br /> <br />The synoptic setting in which the experiment took place is shown <br /> <br /> <br />in Figure 3. A rapidly moving (30 kts.) upper trough passed over the <br /> <br /> <br />western states and was located over eastern Colorado and eastern New <br />