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<br />60 <br /> <br />JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY <br /> <br />VOLUME 17 <br /> <br />photographs taken from the upper cloud physics <br />aircraft. The water base appeared to be constantly <br />rising. The ice appeared photographically at cloud <br />base at about 15 min after seeding and was confirmed <br />about 1 min later on a pass by the MRI cloud physics <br />aircraft. The UW aircraft measurements indicated <br />that the most intense portion of the snow shower <br />occurred before 25 min after seeding. Particle concentra- <br />tions for the lower two aircraft were taken from the <br />PMS2 and PMS3 probes. Though the snow would <br />definitely be melting, it is assumed that no appreciable <br />fragmentation or coagulation was occurring. The <br />concentrations quoted are the linear averages for the <br />pass and, therefore, do not represent any particular <br />location in Fig. 4. All interpolations and extrapolations <br />away from the sampling levels are obviously crude. <br />The temperatures plotted in Fig. 6 are from a <br />combination of aircraft and rawinsonde data. Dew <br />points measured by the upper two aircraft showed an <br />extremely dry layer near cloud top. Turbulence <br />measurements by an MRI probe on the upper aircraft <br />showed values of 0.8 cmf S-l outside the cloud. Values <br />averaged 5.1 inside the cloud on passes 2 and 3 and then <br />dropped steadily to 2.1 on pass 8 and Were slightly less <br />than 2 for most of the subsequent passes. Updrafts <br />at the upper level reached an average of 6 m' S-l in <br />/ the western bubble on passes 2 and 3. On pass 4 the <br />updraft values varied slightly around zero. Subsequent <br />values were typically about 1 m S-l and therefore in the <br />noise region of the instrumentation. The cloudbase <br />aircraft found updrafts of about 2-3 m S-l during the <br />early life of the experiment but little organization. <br />-The aircraft soundings showed a dry adiabatic lapse <br />rate below cloud to the surface. A generally constant <br />mixing ratio, appropriate to the lowest cloud base, was <br />found throughout most of the subcloudlayer. A lesser <br />mixing ratio, appropriate to the final base, was found <br />for several hundred meters below the initial base. <br />Therefore, the cloud may have been initiated by surface <br />convection, but it appeared to be maintained only by <br />mid-level convection at its later stages. <br />The cloud seeded with dry ice was the only cloud <br />within sight ,that showed the presence of ice crystals <br />visually except for the cumulonimbus clouds on the <br />horizon. It was also the only cloud within 100 km to <br />produce an echo on the 5.4 cm radar. That echo was <br />weak and first was noticed at about the 0 dBZ level <br />10 min after seeding when ice crystal concentrations <br />peaked over 100 .e-1 and the PMS3 instrument on the <br />upper aircraft showed a very small number of particles <br />(presumably aggregates) at the maximum size measur- <br />able, 4.5 mm. The echo vanished (less than 0 dBZ) <br />by 41 min after seeding 'Yhen crystal concentrations <br />had decreased to less than 20 .e-1 and diameters were <br />less than 1 mm at the upper aircraft level. <br />The PMS2 probe on the upper aircraft showed an <br />increasing crystal size after seeding. Part of this increase <br />was due to aircraft descent to temperatures of faster <br /> <br />crystal growth rate. The growth of the largest crystals <br />is consistant with a growth rate initiated within .a few <br />minutes of seeding and thereafter following the growth <br />rates of Ryan et at. (1974). The 90 percentile size as <br />measured by the PMS2 probe rose from 140 J.lm at <br />4.5 min after seeding (sampled at -9.50C) to 245 J.lm <br />at 10.5 min after seeding (sampled at - 6.50C). Crystal <br />sizes thereafter increased very slowly. The 90-percentile <br />size of particles (presumably aggregates) measured by <br />the PMS3 probe was about 1.8 mm from 10-24 min <br />after seeding, while the median size reached only 0.75 <br />mm. This is another indication of aggregation of high <br />concentrations of ice crystals following seeding, pre- <br />viously reported by Holroyd and Jiusto (1971). If one <br />could account for the large number of crystals contained <br />in aggregates, the dry ice effectiveness values cal- <br />culated for this experiment would probably increase <br />appreciably. <br />The visual, radar and high ice crystal concentration <br />characteristics of this cloud (and their timing) give <br />strong indications that the ice crystals observed in the <br />seeded cloud resulted from the seeding, especially when <br />compared to all the other altocumulus elements present <br />in the area. The crystal effectiveness estimate from this <br />experiment alone ranges from 4 to 10 X 1011 crystals <br />per gram of dry ice. These are probably conservative <br />values due to crystal aggregation and undercounting <br />by the ice crystal counter. <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />6. Practicability of dry ice seeding <br /> <br />Cloud seeding with dry ice offers several advantages <br />over silver iodide provided that 1) it is practical to <br />carry and drop adequate amounts from on-top cloud <br />positions, and 2) on-top seeding is judged desira.ble for <br />reasons not discussed in detail here. Some of the <br />reasons for on-top seeding Can be found in St.-Amand <br />and Elliott (1972), Summers et at. (1972) and Simpson <br />(1976a,b). Of perhaps most significance is the greater <br />visibility and ease of identification of the young, active <br />elements of a developing cloud complex from on top <br />rather than at cloud base. <br />Advantages of dry ice over AgI have been mentioned <br />recently by Smith (1974) and Simpson and Dennis <br />(1974). Some of the more important possible advantages <br />include the following: <br /> <br />1) Significant nucleation appears possible at warmer <br />temperatures than with Agl. Using the pyrotechnic <br />effectiveness values of Garvey (1975) it is evident that <br />dry ice produces more crystals per gram, than AgI <br />pyrotechnics at temperatures warmer than - 90C. <br />There is some disagreement concerning the actual <br />threshold temperature of dry ice pellets falling through <br />a cloud (Eadie and Mee, 1963; Fukuta et at., 1971); <br />however, significant nucleation is reported at - 20C <br />for dry ice. The situation with AgI is more complex <br />with the fraction of particles nucleating ice depending <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br />