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<br />liter. As expected, there was a tendency for higher concentrations at colder temperatures. These relatively <br />low values also argue against ice multiplication and indicate that the ice crystals sampled by aircraft were <br />generally caused by primary nucleation due to ice nuclei. However, a note of caution is in order. There is <br />reason for concern about the representativeness of the 1987 aircraft sampling. Further, ice multiplication <br />may have sometimes occurred below aircraft sampling levels. <br /> <br />Aircraft observations of liquid water contents were usually limited to low values, presenting a less optimistic <br />assessment of cloud seeding potential than the much more abundant microwave radiometer measurements. <br />This is believed to be partially due to a demonstrated bias in the aircraft sampling periods such that the <br />wetter storm periods were not measured. Further, it is suspected that higher amounts of liquid water often <br />existed below permissible aircraft altitudes, but no direct measurements presently exist to test this <br />supposition. <br /> <br />Most of the total precipitation at both field sites was from the synoptic stratiform storm class. The heavier <br />snowfall episodes were created by large-scale atmospheric motions that were largely independent of the <br />Mogollon Rim terrain. The precipitation was often initiated at high levels well upwind of the Mogollon Rim <br />but experienced substantial growth in the locally produced cloud liquid water at low levels over the Mogollon <br />Rim. <br /> <br />Precipitation rate distributions were highly skewed as is common for mountain snowfall. That is, many hours <br />had light snowfall rates while half the total precipitation fell during only 12 percent of the hours with <br />snowfall. Precipitation generally fell in episodes typically lasting about 1 day with longer periods of dry <br />weather in between. <br /> <br />Atmospheric stabilities were examined during 1987 storms using rawinsonde and aircraft observations; in <br />most cases, the stability was neutral. Therefore, ground-released seeding material should mix vertically, given <br />sufficient time and distance, and not be trapped as has been the case with some mountain barriers with <br />stable atmospheres. <br /> <br />A series of experiments was conducted that simulated ground-based seeding by release of a tracer gas. <br />These experiments were highly successful in tracking the tracer gas under a variety of conditions; the results <br />showed that seeding material, released from the surface on the windward slope of the barrier, would typically <br />cross the crest with a plume height of over 700 meters. Plume widths were sufficient that a reasonable <br />number of ground-based silver iodide generators could seed a large portion of the Mogollon Rim. <br /> <br />The observed tracer gas concentrations and prevailing temperatures during both warm and cold storms were <br />used to estimate effective in-cloud ice nucleus concentrations for typical silver iodide generator outputs. <br />These estimates showed that Arizona stratiform storms are usually too warm, in the layer that could be <br />seeded from the ground, for significant ice crystal production with conventional types of generators and silver <br />iodide. Enhanced vertical mixing to colder levels may occur during periods with embedded convection. Such <br />conditions were not well represented in the tracer gas experiments. Further, recently developed silver iodide <br />solutions, effective at warmer temperatures, and higher output generators should increase the fraction of <br />storms seedable by ground release. Also, the effectiveness of various types of silver iodide requires testing in <br />actual clouds, as the laboratory results used in the simulations may be underestimates. Therefore, while <br /> <br />vi <br />