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<br />002531 <br /> <br />SECTION I. INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />Project Skywater is the research program of the Office of Atmospheric <br />Resources Management, Division of Research, Bureau of Reclamation, to <br />resolve the scientific, environmental, social, economic, and legal <br />uncertainties of precipitation enhancement by cloud seeding and <br />to develop a socially acceptable technology. The program seeks an <br />improved, interdisciplinary understanding of the intricate processes <br />of the atmosphere, specifically its precipitation component. <br />Program direction and policies are developed within a partnership <br />framework with scientists, resource managers, and officials of the <br />cooperating states. <br /> <br />The weather is the most pervasive environmental factor on earth; it <br />affects the air, land, and water resources. Weather influences the <br />size and location of species populations and their activities. Yet, <br />its processes are relative mysteries nearly a decade after the <br />world's well-orchestrated leap into interplanetary space age <br />technology. <br /> <br />The world has a sufficient supply of water. However, its distribution <br />does not fit the needs of free human societies. History records the <br />struggle of early civilizations to manage and stretch water resources, <br />and even today, we transport life-sustaining quantities long distances <br />in response to national, regional, and local policies and needs. <br /> <br />Precipitation, the vital water delivery link in the hydrologic cycle, <br />is neither a regular nor a dependable occurrence. Meteorologists <br />believe that only about 10 percent of the water that passes over <br />different regions of the world in the atmosphere actually reaches the <br />earth. This program report summarizes the Bureau of Reclamation's <br />scientific investigations of the factors that influence development <br />of a successful precipitation enhancement technology. It covers the <br />period from July 1,1974, to September 30,1978 [fiscal years 1975-78 <br />and the T.Q. (Transitional Quarter) July 1 to September 30, 1976J. <br /> <br />The 1974-78 Project Skywater period was characterized by increasingly <br />intensive efforts to reduce scientific uncertainty about the way <br />precipitation develops and what science might do to influence the <br />process in a beneficial manner. The importance of greater under- <br />standing of the physical changes involved in/the formation of <br />precipitation has become widely accepted. The requirement of sound <br />physical understanding as the foundation for statistically designed <br />experiments accompanies the premise that demonstrations of statisti- <br />cally significant precipitation increases will provide the basis for <br />widespread adoption of weather modification technology. <br /> <br />I-I <br />