My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
WMOD00079
CWCB
>
Weather Modification
>
Backfile
>
WMOD00079
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
7/28/2009 2:27:46 PM
Creation date
10/1/2006 2:12:38 PM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Weather Modification
Contract/Permit #
#98-1
Applicant
Western Kansas Groundwater
Project Name
Kansas Weather Modification
Date
1/1/1998
Weather Modification - Doc Type
Report
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
65
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
Show annotations
View images
View plain text
<br />contain a built-in air tank within each generator which, when pressurized, forces the liquid seeding <br />solution through an aperture and nebulizes it into a fine spray. The spray then flows into a combustion <br />chamber where it is vaporized by burning. As the spray bums, very pure particles are formed and are <br />exhausted out the tail-end of the generator into cloud base updrafts where the particles are carned <br />aloft by natural action into the cloud's supercooled region. <br /> <br />From 1987 through 1995 the liquid seeding agent was the same: Quantities of the oxidizers <br />sodium perchlorate and anunonium perchlorate were added to a silver iodide-anunonium iodide- <br />acetone-water solution resulting in a liquid solution containing 2% silver iodide by weight. However, <br />in 1997 the formulation was changed to contain amounts of silver iodide, sodium iodide, acetone and <br />paradichlorobenzene (C6H.Cl,). Cloud chamber test results at CSU indicated the total number of ice <br />crystals produced by the new solution at -10C were closely equivalent to the old formulation <br />containing the perchlorates. Also, the particles initially act as hygroscopic condensation nuclei insuring <br />that the formation of vast numbers of water droplets will contain ice nuclei particles. Any ice nuclei <br />initially not trapped in the water droplets can be captured later by other droplets through random <br />collisions within the cloud called "contact nucleation". The entire process of hygroscopic condensation <br />followed by freezing and contact nucleation, forms greater numbers of ice crystals at relatively <br />warmer temperatures within a cloud than by simple contact nucleation. <br /> <br />The overriding reason to change to this formulation was due to its clean-burning properties. <br />When this solution burns, little, if any, residue is produced leaving less generator maintenance needed <br />over time---a critically important consideration during persistent, active operational periods. In tlie past <br />two seasons using this formulation, wing generator maintenance due to corroded parts has been nil <br />compared to previous seasons while using the perchlorate additives. <br /> <br />In order to obtain the desired effect when seeding clouds, each cloud must be treated within <br />a proper time interval, a "window of opportunity," in order to produce the optimum ice crystal <br />concentrations in clouds naturally deficient in them and to promote supercooled water droplet freezing <br />within clouds. A cloud growing to maturity must be treated with enough time allowed so that the <br />generated ice nuclei can be lifted by natural cloud updraft action into the appropriate temperature and <br />moisture regime and kept there for a sufficient time to interact with the supercooled cloud water. If <br />this opportunity window is missed when attempting rainfall stimulation, clouds may collapse <br />prematurely resulting in wasted effort and resources. "Residence Time" in the supercooled cloud <br />volume is critical to the success of both rain stimulation and hail reduction efforts. <br /> <br />The behavior of weakly and moderately growing cumuliform clouds can be altered through <br />. what's called the "dyn~c effect." Under certain atmospheric conditions, clouds may be stimulated <br />to grow larger and rain longer than would be the case if otherwise left unseeded. This is done by <br />getting sufficient amount of seeding agent into the supercooled portion of a cloud to promote the rapid <br />conversion from water droplets to ice crystals. When this water-to-ice conversion process occurs <br />rapidly, the latent heat of fusion is released on a massive scale making the cloud slightly warmer and <br />more buoyant. Updrafts will soon become invigorated drawing in greater amounts of water vapor into <br />the cloud and supplying more moisture to the cloud for subsequent growth and "processing" into <br />rainfall. This process enables a cloud to rain more and rain for a longer time than ifleft unseeded. <br /> <br />6 <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.