WMOD00568

• Project Name: Snowater
• Title: Snow Water Augmentation for the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies - Stage I: Technology Adaptation
• Date: 6/1/1986
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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Throughout SNOWATER, cooperation with neighbouring provinces would be
emphasized. This cooperation would follow the stated policy of the
Government of Alberta to "cooperate with other Provincial Governments
and the Government of Canada in the regulatory aspects of
interprovincial waterways and in joint activities to provide the
physical data necessary for water management decisions" (Water
Resource Management Principals for Alberta, Alberta Environment). This
activity will involve close liaison with the appropriate agencies
within the Governments of Canada, British Columbia and Saskatchewan to
insure proper water management principals are addressed in SNOWATER.

The proposed SNOWATER I project has three major areas of activity: (A)
development and adaptation of appropriate technology, (B) trial
seeding studies and (C) support studies to be completed principally by
contract. This section will outline the principal components of each
of these three areas.

2.4.1 TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTATION

Instrumentation required for snow augmentation presently exists.
However, much of it is not available "off the shelf" and its
acquisition and adaptation to Alberta would require significant lead
time. An aggressive approach is presented requiring timely decisions
for equipment procurement. It is anticipated that it may be possible
to obtain certain of these instruments from other agencies. This would
provide cost and time effective. utilization of existing resources.
This would permit experimental seeding within three years. A less
aggressive approach would require a similar committment over a longer
period of time. Development and adaptation of required technology will
concentrate on the following three systems listed below.

2.4.1.1 Seeding Opportunity Recognition System

In order to recognize where, when, and how to seed orographic clouds,
an opportunity recognition system must be developed. Certain
measurement systems have been developed within the past several years
to make an effective near real-time Seeding Opportunity Recognition
System possible. This system would require measurements of cloud
supercooled liquid water, temperatures, ice crystal concentrations,
heights and thicknesses; environmental winds and- temperatures;
precipitation amounts and intensities; and ice crystal habits. As
part of the Seeding Opportunity Recognition System a specific seeding
hypothesis would be formulated. Components of this system would be as
f 011 ows :

Meteorological forecast facility - to develop systems and
expertise to forecast and monitor meteorological conditions in
the project area. The facility would include equipment and
procedures similar to that developed during the Albert Hail
Project. Additional requirements would be access to appropriate

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