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Last modified
7/28/2009 2:37:27 PM
Creation date
4/16/2008 10:37:05 AM
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Template:
Weather Modification
Title
Weather Modification Glossary
Prepared By
A. S. Dennis
Date
1/1/1987
Weather Modification - Doc Type
Report
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<br />III. RESULTS OF CLOUD SEEDING TO MODIFY PRECIPITATION 609 <br /> <br />served, but high ice crystal concentrations still <br />are observed in some cases with warm cloud <br />tops. Even there, high ice crystal concentrations <br />appear to be associated with the presence of <br />large cloud droplets. In any situation the high ice <br />crystal concentrations act to suppress the con- <br />centration of supercooled liquid water. <br />Despite some notable attempts, no one has <br />yet devised a satisfactory model that combines <br />all of the physical observations and relates them <br />in a consistent way to the indications obtained <br />from randomized seeding trials. A series of ex- <br />periments at Climax, Colorado, provided evi- <br />dence that precipitation increases were associ- <br />ated with 500-mbar temperatures warmer than <br />-200C and with 500-mbar winds from the south- <br />westerly quadrant. In contrast, a randomized <br />experiment near Lake Almanor, California, indi- <br />cated that increases were associated with the <br />westerly winds that followed the passage of a <br />trough of low pressure. The difference in appar- <br />ent results may be related to the importance of <br />secondary ice crystal production in the warm <br />southerly flow that precedes trough passages in <br />California. However, results from experiments <br />and operational programs closer to the Pacific <br />Coast have suggested a good seeding potential in <br />the convective bands in advance of the major <br />troughs. <br />Results of the various experiments and opera- <br />tional programs suggest that a variety of out- <br />comes is possible and that tailoring a seeding <br />operation to a particular project area requires <br />careful consideration of wind fields, siting of <br />generators, diffusion and transport of seeding <br />agents, storm types, presence or absence of sec- <br />ondary ice formation, and other microphysical <br />characteristics of the air masses involved. <br />It has not yet been possible to determine <br />whether or not dynamic effects are important in <br />seeding winter orographic clouds. Some evi- <br />dence has been presented indicating that con- <br />vective bands are intensified by seeding them, <br />but it is not clear whether the greater intensity of <br />the seeded bands was a result of seeding or of <br />natural variations. <br /> <br />D. REDISTRIBUTION OF SNOWFALL <br /> <br />Calculations of the trajectories of snowflakes <br />and radar observations of trails of snow falling <br />from snow-generating cells at high altitudes <br />show that snowflakes often reach the ground 50- <br />100 km from where they originate. Therefore, <br />minor changes in fall speed can lead to displace- <br />ments of as much as 20 to 30 km in the location <br /> <br />of snowfall. In principle, such changes can be <br />produced by glaciogenic seeding. <br />Investigations in the state of Washington in <br />the 1970s considered the possibility that snow <br />which would otherwise fall on the western <br />slopes of the Cascade Mountains could be in- <br />duced to fall on the eastern side, thereby provid- <br />ing additional water for the arid regions of east- <br />ern Washington. However, it is not necessary to <br />deflect snowflakes as drastically as that to pro- <br />duce an economic impact. For example, causing <br />snowflakes to fall higher on the upwind side of a <br />mountain barrier than they otherwise would can <br />increase the capacity of the snowpack to gener- <br />ate hydroelectric power without any change in <br />the total amount of snow involved. <br />Another suggested application of snowfall re- <br />distribution is to deflect snow away from metro- <br />politan areas, where its presence results in large <br />expenditures for snow removal. During the <br />1970s the National Oceanic and Atmospheric <br />Administration conducted experiments on Great <br />Lakes snowstorms, which indicated that gla- <br />ciogenic seeding over Lake Erie could reduce <br />the amount of riming of snowflakes falling on the <br />lee shore, thereby reducing fall speeds and caus- <br />ing the snowflakes to be carried further inland <br />before reaching the ground. The experimental <br />findings have not yet been applied in an opera- <br />tional mode. <br /> <br />E. SEEDING TO INCREASE PRECIPITATION <br />FROM CONVECTIVE CLOUDS <br /> <br />Convective clouds are responsible for much <br />of the precipitation over the temperate zones, <br />particularly in the summer months, and are re- <br />sponsible for nearly all precipitation in the Trop- <br />ics. Numerous attempts have been made to in- <br />crease rainfall from them. They come in a great <br />variety of shapes, sizes, and degrees of organi- <br />zation, and operators have used many seeding <br />techniques on them. <br /> <br />1. Hygroscopic Seeding of Convective <br />Clouds <br /> <br />Seeding convective clouds with hygroscopic <br />solutions or powders is sometimes called warm <br />cloud seeding because it can produce results in <br />clouds at temperatures entirely above OOC. Con- <br />vective clouds have been seeded with hygro- <br />scopic agents in many countries, notably India <br />and Pakistan, where hygroscopic seeding has <br />been attempted from the ground as well as from <br />
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