WMOD00576

• Title: Summary of Weather Modification Activities Reported in 1979
• Date: 7/1/1980
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

either country within 200 miles of their international boundary. The Atmos~
pheric Environment Service is the Canadian agency designated to implement
the information exchange with NOAA. On a broader scale, NOAA provides infor-
mation on annual activities in the United States to the World Meteorological
Organization for publication in its yearly "Register of National Weather
Modification Projects", a compilation of experiments and operations con-
ducted within member countries.

The reporting procedures include the submittal of Initial, Interim, and
Final Reports covering weather modification activities for individual target
areas. An Initial Report is required at least 10 days prior to the start
of the activity. Interim Reports are required for those projects active
on January 1 of each year and must be filed within 45 days from that date.
A Final Report is to be submitted within 45 days after completion of the
weather modification activity or project. A weather modification activity
is considered active until a Final Report is filed with NOAA.

A project may be carried out intermittently at one location for one or
more years, or a project may begin and end within a year. Often, projects
are completed early in a year and restarted near the end of that year at the
same location with the same techniques. In this case, only one project
at the one location would be used in summarizing the number of projects and
target areas for the calendar year; however the seeding data for both pro-
jects at the one location are used in preparing summary information.

Copies of the reporting law, reporting procedures, and the reporting
forms are attached as appendices A, B, and C, respectively, to this report.
Requests for information on the reporting procedures, the reporting forms,
and the reported activities should be directed to:

Atmospheric Programs Office, RD-2
Office of Research and Development
NOAA
6010 Executive Blvd.
Rockvi1le, MD 20852 (Tel. [phone])

This summary report covers nonfederal and Federally sponsored weather
modification activities reported to NOAA for calendar year 1979. It in-
cludes analyses of data on project purposes, sponsors, operators, target
locations, target areas, modification techniques, apparatus, and seeding
agents. Additional information is provided on the number of modification
days, duration of seeding activities, and amounts of seeding agents. Also
included is a brief discussion of reported information on operational
safeguards and environmental factors associated with weather modification
activities. The results of the data reported in 1979 are compared with the
previously published data for 1973 - 78 to determine possible trends in the
number and character of weather modification activities in the United States.

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