WMOD00436

• Project Name: Project Skywater
• Title: HIPLEX - 1978 Operations Plan - Miles City, Montana
• Date: 1/1/1978
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

attempt to treat as many towering cumulus or feeder cells as practical,

The number of turrets that can be treated will be notedJ both with and

without the constraint of a second penetration to monitor ice crystals

approximately five minutes after the seeding run. A system (convective

complex or field of towering cumulus) will undergo treatment until lack of

fuel or seeding material requires a return to base, or the system 1.s judged

to be too complex or too diminished for further treatment. If fuel and

seeding materials are adequate to begin treatment of another systerrl, a

judgment must be made as to whether treatment can be continued long enough

to justify beginning, or whether replenishment of fuel and seeding material

should be accomplished prior to further treatment. Close coordination with

radar personnel will obviously be necessary throughout each mission,

4. Investigation will be continued into the formation and dispersion of

ice crystals from on-top seeding with both silver iodide and dry ice, The

subsequent evolution of the ice crystals will be documented, possibly into

precipitation-sized particles. Different seeding rates will be used in

conjunction with objective 1 in an effort to determine optimum seeding rates,

5, Placebos for the seeding materials will be tested and improved as needed,

Placebo silver iodide flares will be used because the firing of ac.tual flares

could sometimes be detected during 1977 seeding runs. It is believed that

the disengagement of a shaft pin will serve as a suitable placebo for the

dry ice dispenser, because it should look and sound the same whether dry ice

is being expelled or not (the dispensE!r will always be loaded by dry ice).

6, Development will continue on updating the objective forecasting tech-

niques to predict the formation of convective clouds, and to estimate their

1-7