Laserfiche WebLink
<br />III. GENERAL OPERATIONS <br /> <br />A. PROJECT DESIGN <br /> <br />The WKWM program wa~ designed to be an operational cloud seeding <br />effort to increase precipitation and reduce hail over the <br />pal~ticipating counties in southwest Kansas. Some data obtained in <br />pr-eviou5 yec:tl"s on t.his prQqr"am have been used by oU"'le,"'s in 1.\.le1::'\t.hey' <br />modification evaluations and research. Future seasonal data from the <br />WKWM program will undoubtedly add more to this growing field of <br />information. Over the years, technological innovations have been <br />combined successfully with other advances in the field of weather <br />modification. The Wf(WM progl'am has progressively upgraded its <br />operations in order to maintain its high standards. <br /> <br />In order to accomplish the objectives of the WKWM program, an <br />opere~t.ionB.1 plan hE,S been developed. Thl? ~Jl?n~:."!\"'t:l.l concept.si. c.,f the <br />program have changed little over the 12-year period t.he program has <br />been in existence. An operational flow chart is shown in Figure 4. <br /> <br />WKWM operations divide into three major categories: <br /> <br />(1) Weather forecasting/operational planning <br />(2) Weather surveillance - visual and radar <br />(3) Aircraft seeding operations <br /> <br />B. \,lEATHER FORECA~=;TING/OPERATIONAL PLANNING <br /> <br />Radio and television weather programs provide a genel~al <br />first-order indication of expected storm devel'~pment within th~ <br />operational area. However, the media programs are insufficient in <br />sp~cific detail to successfully conduct an operational weather <br />modification progl~am. <br /> <br />Operational weather forecasts were prepared daily by the WKWM <br />program meteorologists at Lakin. The data received were supplied via <br />B cc'mputer' t.el~minal 1 inked t.o an infol~m~~.t.ion banI:: rt'I21int.ained by t.he <br />Environmental Data Network (EON) of the Bureau of ReclaMation Also. <br />a private weather service, WSI Corp., was used alternat.ively because <br />of its high reliabilty and timeliness of data available. <br /> <br />Data acquisition normally consisted of collect.ing the upper air <br />soundings performed twice daily by the National Weather Service at <br />Dodge City: 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., MDT. Also, other various upper <br />c:l.tr info\~r!l8.ti()n Wi::-\S able t.o bE"! obt..;::t.ined, plot.t..E'd anlj ar.alyzed for <br />large geographical areas of intel~est at different levels of the <br />atmosphere. When analyzed, these maps showed important meteol'ological <br />features which could be followed as they moved toward the WKWM <br />operational area. <br /> <br />Other information included computer genel~ated 12-t1our and 24-hour <br />forecasts of atmospheric change at a given geogl~aphical point and <br />computer calculated forecasts of the expected temperature at which <br />convective storms were to develop along with the maximum expected <br /> <br />10 <br />