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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I, <br />T <br />1 <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />I. BACKGROUND <br /> <br />Probably the first rain stimulation proposal having a <br />reasonable scientific basis was that made by James P. Espy. In the <br />April 5, 1839 issue of the National Gazette and Literary Register <br />of Philadelphia, Espy proposed building large fires to generate <br />~pdraf~s. He reaaoned ~hat in a humid atmosphere cumulus clouds <br />. 'would develop and eventually produce rain. There are no records <br />indicating the scheme led to any field' trials. [n the 1880' s <br />Congress appropriated $10,000 to conduct Borne field experiments <br />based on an old idea that "it always rains after a. battle", <br />Subsequently,~tests were performed with explosive charges carried <br />aloft in balloons with some optimistic reports scan following. In <br />the 1930's work done by T. Bergeron and W. Findeisen led to <br />formulat.ion of the concept that clouds may contain both supercooled <br />water and ice crystals. This led furt.her to the concepts of "warm <br />rain" and "cold rain " <explained later in section Il---The <br />Physical Basis For, Cloud Seeding). <br /> <br />Modern scientific cloud modification had its serious <br />beginnings in the late 1940' s in Schenectady, New York at the <br />General Electric Laboratories. Dry ice and silver iodide were the <br />ice nucleating agents used by the researchers Schaefer, Langmuir <br />and Vonnegut during early trials in the laboratory and field. The <br />ice nucleating agents used in claud seeding have changed little <br />with time and still are used in Kansas as well as on programs <br />throughout the world. <br /> <br />In 1972 the Kansas Legislature took a giant and progressive <br />step forward when it enacted the Groundwater Management District <br />Act. The act enabled interested groups to form organizations to <br />implement area water conservation programs far themselves. Western <br />Kansas Groundwater Management District #1 <WKGMD #1) thus became a <br />legal entity of the State of Kansas. <br /> <br />Soon after WKGMD #1 came into being, the Groundwater District <br />5upporters turned their efforts to identifying organizational <br />program goals and specific objectives. One primary objective was to <br />organize, design and implement an opera"t-ional weather modification <br />program to seed convective clouds to help alleviate the ever- <br />increasing loss of sub-sue face water in Western Kansas. The <br />decision to implement such a program came after thoroughly <br />reviewing results from the research program known as the Kansas <br />Cumulus Project <KANCUP) and from the state-sponsored seeding <br />programs in North Dakota. <br /> <br />VKGMD #1 envisioned perennially supporting a program which <br />would conduct operations during the period of planting. growing and <br />harvesting of crops in Western Kansas. The program objectives were <br />to: <br /> <br />I <br />