Collaborative Research: SNOWIE: Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime clouds: the Idaho Experiment

该奖项是为了表彰一项观测和建模活动，该活动将解决人工降雨对地形冬季降水的影响。 缺乏具体证据表明播云具有增加降水的预期效果，但美国西部的几个州多年来一直进行播云作业。 参与该项目的研究人员相信，凭借先进的观测工具和计算机建模，他们可以为人工影响天气作为增强降水的工具奠定科学基础。 研究人员将对爱达荷州电力公司在帕耶特山脉的播种作业周围地区进行大量仪器测试，以收集有关这些活动有效性的数据。 该奖项代表了一种公私合作伙伴关系，有可能提高云播种作业的可行性，并对美国西部缺水的人口产生影响。 多名研究生和本科生将参与现场工作和数据分析，确保下一代大气科学家的发展。 种子和自然地形冬季云：爱达荷实验 (SNOWIE) 实地活动将于 2017 年初在爱达荷州帕耶特山脉进行。 将使用的主要观测资产是怀俄明大学配备现场和遥感仪器的 King Air 研究飞机、CSWR 轮上多普勒移动雷达以及大量地面遥感和现场降水传感器。 该项目的总体目标是了解降水在山地冬季风暴中形成和演变的自然动力和微物理过程，并确定地面发电机或飞机使用碘化银（AgI）播云影响流域降雪量和空间分布的物理过程。 该提案的核心科学目标是：1）通过观测评估中尺度和微观动力学以及底层地形在冬季风暴中天然冰晶的形成、生长和沉降中的作用，2）通过观测和模型模拟研究空中AgI播种如何改变自然雪生长过程，3）评估地面播种对降雪量和分布的影响。

This award is for an observational and modeling campaign that will address the impact of cloud seeding on orographic winter precipitation. There is a lack of concrete evidence that cloud seeding has the intended impact of increasing precipitation, yet several states in the western US have conducted seeding operations over many years. With advanced observational tools and computer modeling the researchers involved in this project believe that they can build the scientific foundation for weather modification as a tool for precipitation enhancement. The researchers will heavily instrument the area around the Idaho Power Company's seeding operations in the Payette Mountains to collect data on the effectiveness of these activities. This award represents a public/private partnership that has the potential to improve the viability of the cloud seeding operations and has implications for the water-hungry populations in the western US. Multiple graduate and undergraduate students would be involved in the field work and data analysis, ensuring the development of the next generation of atmospheric scientists. The Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE) field campaign will take place in early 2017 in the Payette Mountains of Idaho. The main observational assets that will be used are the University of Wyoming King Air research aircraft with in-situ and remote sensing instruments, the CSWR Doppler on Wheels mobile radars, and a host of ground-based remote sensing and in-situ precipitation sensors. The overall goals of the project are to understanding the natural dynamical and microphysical processes by which precipitation forms and evolves within orographic winter storms and to determine the physical processes by which cloud seeding with silver iodide (AgI), either from ground generators or aircraft, impacts the amount and spatial distribution of snow falling across a river basin. The core scientific objective of the proposal are to: 1) Evaluate the role of mesoscale and microscale dynamics and of the underlying terrain in the formation, growth, and fallout of natural ice crystals in winter storms through observations, 2) Investigate how the natural snow growth process is altered as a result of airborne AgI seeding through both observations and model simulations, and 3) Evaluate the effects of ground seeding on snowfall amount and distribution.