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

该奖项是对一项观测和模拟活动的奖励，该活动将解决云播撒对地形冬季降水的影响。目前还没有确凿的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在进行播种操作。有了先进的观测工具和计算机模拟，参与该项目的研究人员相信，他们可以为人工影响天气作为增雨工具奠定科学基础。研究人员将对爱达荷州电力公司在佩耶特山脉的播种作业周围地区进行大量测量，以收集这些活动的有效性数据。这一奖项代表了一种公私合作关系，有可能提高云播撒作业的可行性，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野外工作和数据分析，确保下一代大气科学家的发展。播种和自然地形冬季云：爱达荷州实验(Snowie)野外活动将于2017年初在爱达荷州的佩耶特山脉举行。将使用的主要观测资产是怀俄明大学国王航空研究飞机，配备现场和遥感仪器，CSWR车轮上的多普勒移动雷达，以及一系列地面遥感和现场降水传感器。该项目的总体目标是了解地形冬季风暴中降水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播撒含碘化银的云对河流流域降雪量和空间分布产生影响的物理过程。该提议的核心科学目标是：1)通过观测，评估中、微尺度动力学和下垫面地形在冬季风暴中天然冰晶形成、生长和散落中的作用；2)通过观测和模式模拟，调查机载AgI播撒对自然雪生长过程的影响；3)评估地面播撒对降雪量和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.