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<br /> <br />002346 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />"Workshop for an Assessment of the Present and Potential Role of Weather <br /> <br />Modification in Agricultural Production" compiled by Grant and Reid at <br /> <br />Colorado State University in August, 1975: <br /> <br />Weather /,lodification has made modest but significant gains during <br />the past 25 years. It can now have at least moderate <br />effects on the solution of food production problems. The <br />technology has clearly not been proven for many applications. <br />Numerous scientific questions remain. <br /> <br />In the discussions at this workshop, it appeared that most of <br /> <br /> <br />the "modest" gain had been made in modifying orographic storms, particu- <br /> <br />1ar1y snowfall. Also, it should be emphasized that conclusive experi- <br />mental data are lacking in all major areas of weather modification, and <br />that rudimentary evidence is lacking in many. A significant number of <br />atmospheric scientists feel that there is still a need for more experi- <br />mentation in all areas of weather modification. <br /> <br />One area in which experimental data are needed is in downwind <br />or large scale effects of convective cloud seeding. Large scale positive <br />and negative effects have been tentatively identified as resulting directly <br />from contamination by a seeding agent or indirectly from changing growth <br />patterns within a part of a larger air mass system. In general. these <br /> <br />res uIts have been reported "after-the-fact," and the experimental des i gn <br /> <br />only included the target areas. Such wide scale effects, if substantiated, <br /> <br /> <br />could have contaminated many of the weather modification experiments <br /> <br /> <br />in the United States. Most recently, some investigators have included <br /> <br />downwind effects in the project design, so some more definitive informa- <br /> <br />tion should be available in the future. <br /> <br />The National Academy of Science Committee on Atmospheric Science <br />in a 1973 report recommended a large increase in funds for weather <br /> <br />modification experiments. With the increase in funds, the committee <br /> <br />7 <br />