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

合作研究：SNOWIE：种子和自然地形冬季云：爱达荷州实验

• 批准号: 1547101
• 负责人: Jeffrey French
• 金额: $ 79.69万
• 依托单位: University of Wyoming
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1547101&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; SNOWIE; Seeded; Natural

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.

该奖项将用于观测和建模活动，以解决云播对地形冬季降水的影响。目前还缺乏确凿的证据表明人工降雨会对降水增加产生预期的影响，但美国西部的几个州多年来一直在进行人工降雨作业。有了先进的观测工具和计算机模型，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加降水的工具建立科学基础。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量，以收集有关这些活动有效性的数据。该奖项代表了一种公共/私人合作伙伴关系，有可能提高云播作业的可行性，并对美国西部缺水人口产生影响。多名研究生和本科生将参与实地工作和数据分析，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）野外活动将于2017年初在爱达荷州的帕耶特山脉进行。将使用的主要观测资产是怀俄明大学的King Air研究飞机，该飞机带有原位和遥感仪器，CSWR多普勒轮式移动雷达，以及大量地面遥感和原位降水传感器。该项目的总体目标是了解在地形冬季风暴中降水形成和演变的自然动力学和微物理过程，并确定通过地面发电机或飞机用碘化银（AgI）人工降雨影响流域降雪量和空间分布的物理过程。本研究的核心科学目标是：1)通过观测评估中尺度和微观尺度动力学以及下垫地形在冬季风暴中天然冰晶形成、生长和沉降中的作用；2)通过观测和模式模拟研究机载AgI播种对天然雪生长过程的影响；3)评估地面播种对降雪量和分布的影响。