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<br />00U171 <br /> <br />the locations and spacing of these generators at each site and will <br />also provide for the design of an aircraft seeding program for <br />storms not treatable by the ground-based AgI generators. <br /> <br />Key elements in this decision will be the location of the super- <br />cooled water zone and the temperature of that zone because this will <br />largely determine the best seeding method. In some cases, it will <br />be necessary to change the seeding mode as the storm evolves during <br />the treatment period. The general approach toward the type of <br />seeding agent used will be to use the most effective treatment for <br />each type of cloud that occurs during an operational period, even <br />when that means using different agents during the same period. The <br />goal is to get the needed concentration of ice crystals in the <br />supercooled cloud the best way possible. <br /> <br />A computerized diffusion model will be employed to compute the <br />expected plume spread of silver iodide from ground sources. If the <br />model predicts that the nuclei plume top will reach supercooled cloud <br />at temperatures equal to or colder than -10 'C, ground silver iodide <br />generators will be used. Seeding will be accomplished by aircraft <br />in those instances where near-surface cloud temperatures are too <br />warm for significant silver iodide nucleation, or where the super- <br />cooled cloud is above the level the ground-generated nuclei are <br />expected to reach. <br /> <br />b. Opportunity recognition system. - The presence of supercooled <br />water for seeding operations will be monitored because it is the <br />supercooled water zones that must be treated with the seeding <br />material or resulting ice embryos. Knowledge of the existence and <br />location of the supercooled water will permit a timely response by <br />the appropriate seeding method, be it ground-based or airborne <br />releases. <br /> <br />In most past programs, the monitoring of supercooled water, if <br />carried out at all, was limited to aircraft observations more than <br />600 meters (2000 feet) above the highest terrain. Recent observa- <br />tions have shown the supercooled water to be concentrated near the <br />terrain in the common stable storms. This limits the monitoring <br />role of aircraft, although in unstable situations the convective <br />elements often produce supercooled water through a sufficient <br />vertical extent to permit aircraft sampling. Surface observations <br />have generally been made only at mountain observatories, yielding no <br />information on horizontal or vertical distributions. Clearly, the <br />ability to monitor this key link in the chain of physical events has <br />been severely limited in past experiments. <br /> <br />However, three new instrumentation systems have recently been <br />developed which will be of significant value in monitoring super- <br />cooled water in CREST. <br /> <br />The first is a microwave radiometer which can remotely sense the <br />liquid water along the path where the antenna is pointing. While no <br />special information is available regarding the distribution of <br /> <br />30 <br />