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<br />Wasatch Weather Modification Project <br /> <br />The Utah ~Jater Research Laboratory, Utah State Uni vel~s ity, con'ducted <br />an experiment to develop techniques for treating winter storms over <br />the Wasatch Mountains in Utah as a part of Project Skywater. As a <br />part of this research, C. Earl Israelsen 7/ prepared a report which <br />includes a comprehensive set of references and discu$sions of <br />studies undertaKen since Kurtyka's report in 1952. Israelsen <br />concluded that "In spite of its inadequacies, the mO$t accurate gage <br />in widespread use for measuring snow is a can-type pl"ecipitation <br />gage on a well protected site. The major errors in measuring snow <br />are due to improper siting." <br /> <br />.- <br /> <br />The precipitation network used on the project in Utah consisted of <br />46 weighing gages in and near the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains with <br />the data telemetered at intervals ranging from 15 to 30 minutes. 8/ <br />The gage consisted of a cylindrical metal container \'iith a 200-mm- <br />(8-in) orifice with either 890 mm (36 in) or 1780 mm (70 in) of <br />capacity painted black to increase solar radiation absorption. The <br />precipitation can was placed upon a weighing transducer which <br />changes an audiofrequency as the precipitation accumulates. Wind <br />caused some fluctuations in the data. <br /> <br />Colorado River Basin Pilot Project <br /> <br />The most extensive winter orographic cloud seeding e)(periment <br />conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation has been the Colorado River <br />Basin Pilot Project which began in the fall of 1968 and continued <br />through the spring of 1975 in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern <br />Colorado. In November 1968, Western Scientific Services, Inc. (WSSI), <br />was awarded a contract for designing, installing, and operating an <br />extensive hydrometeorological instrument and observation network. A <br />report on the surface instrument network was made to the Western <br />Snow Conference in April 1970. 9/ To test the accuracy of the <br />precipitation observations, which were taken by standard weighing <br />bucket gages, the accumulated precipitation amounts in gages on <br />mountai n pass profil es were compared to amounts obsel~ved by the <br />Soil Conservation Service snow courses located at or near the gages. <br />The measurements were felt to be in good agreement, although the <br />estimates of snowfall deri ved from the gages tended to be on the <br />order of 10 percent greater. <br /> <br />t:. <br /> <br />During the last 3 years of the program in the San Juan Mountains, two <br />identical recording weighing bucket gages were operated side Dy side <br /> <br />4 <br />