WMOD00544

• Project Name: Project Skywater
• Title: Project Skywater - An Introduction to Rivers in the Sky
• Date: 12/1/1973
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

MAJOR PROJECTS

THE LARGEST SINGLE Skywater pro-
gram is the Colorado River Basin Pilot
Project in the San Juan Mountains of
Southwestern Colorado. The study is test-
ing techniques for augmenting the snow-
pack in the high Rockies and, at the same
time, attempting to measure the environ-
mental effects of winter seeding. A full
analysis and evaluation of the techniques
applied in the project should be completed
by about 1976.

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Ecological research, to de-

termine if cloud seeding

affects various ecosystems,

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is a large part of Project

Skywater.

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Detailed environmental studies, r1epresent-
ing about 30 percent of the project's
budget, are striving to detect an effect of
the seeding agent, silver iodide" and the
ecological effects of increased snowpack.
The latter-among other studies-in-
cludes extensive research into the causes
of avalanches, attempts to develop a
method of avalanche forecasting, and
studies the effects of snowpack augmen-
tation on the occurrence of avalanches.

The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project
environmental studies, involving a
consortium of three universities, is com-
plemented by similar, but not duplicative,
research in the Medicine Bow Mountains

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