WMOD00372

• Project Name: High Plains Cooperative Program
• Title: The Design of HIPLEX-1
• Date: 4/1/1979
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

II. BACKGROUND

The HIPLEX Program officially came into being in January 1973 when
the Office of Management and Budget directed the Bureau of Reclamation
to initiate the High Plains experiment "* * * to test the basic
concepts of precipitation augmentation." After a period of. planning
and equipment procurement, field operations began in 1975 at three
sites (a limited program of radar and photographic observations was
carried out at Miles City, Montana, in 1974). The Miles City area of
eastern Montana, the Goodland-Colby area of western Kansas, and the
Big Spring-Snyder area of west Texas were selected as representative
of the northern, central, and southern High Plains, respectively.
Three sites were chosen because earlier studies suggested that cloud
characteristics and principal precipitation mechanisms differed over
the north-south extent of the High Plains. These particular sites
were selected on the basis of climatological evidence of suitable
convective activity and an expressed interest in the program from
local and state officials.

The design concept for the HIPLEX Program is based on the recommenda-
tions of the ISWS (Illinois State Water Survey) as presented in the
document "Design of the High Plains Experiment with Specific Focus
on Phase 2, Single Cloud Experimentation," dated June 30, 1976.
This document formalizes the two parallel components of the HIPLEX
Program - the atmospheric and the socioeconomic/environmental. The
~SWS design plan outlines an overlapping three-phase research program
with feedback among the phases that provides general guidance for
HIPLEX. Phase 1 is development of the data base and knowledge of
cloud and mesoscale systems upon which to base the specific experi-
mental designs for subsequent phases. Phase 2, the single-cloud
rain modification experiment, is specific preparations for and
execution of exploratory experiments (or what ISWS termed "proof-
of-concept" experiments)* to establish the physical basis fqr
augmenting precipitation from convective clouds. Phase 3 is the
area rain modification experiment, which applies the techniques

* Recent trends in the literature (e.g., Weather Modification
Advisory Board, 1978) have equated the term "proof-of-concept" with
"confirmatory" experiments. The "proof-of-concept" experiment out-
lined in phase 2 of the ISWS design plan is basically a series of
advanced exploratory experiments on increasingly complex cloud
systems. To avoid confusion, the Bureau of Reclamation will no
longer refer to "proof-of-concept" experiments and will, instead,
use the terms "exploratory" and "confirmatory" experiments.
HIPLEX-1 is, in this terminology, an exploratory experiment~

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