Collaborative Research: Further Investigations from the Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE)

几十年来，美国西部和全球其他地区一直在通过播云来增加降水。尝试播云的主要天气条件之一是在云中有大量液态水的山区。从云播撒材料的释放到降水形成的一连串事件的直接观测证据显示在最近由国家科学基金会支持的实地活动的数据中。这一奖项将为研究人员提供进一步分析该活动数据的机会，以回答有关云播撒背后的科学问题。这项研究代表了NSF赞助的科学家和一家提供水力发电的公用事业公司之间的公私合作关系。下一代科学家也将在这个项目中接受培训。研究小组将扩大对来自种子和自然地形学冬季云的现场活动数据的分析：爱达荷州实验(Snowie)，该实验于2017年进行。初步结果表明，在某些情况下，在地形区播云可以引发降雪。研究小组将超越明显的播云影响案例，分析活动期间的每一个案例，包括那些在自然降雪的同时进行播云的案例。该项目的首要目标是为所有Snowie播撒事件提供具有不确定性限制的对冰川成因云播撒的降水增强的估计。这将涉及使用Snowie数据集进行数据分析和最先进的建模。研究人员已经确定了一系列问题，以解决下列研究假设：1)在主要是层状地形云中观测到的中尺度和微尺度上升气流是产生过冷液态水、有时是天然冰粒的焦点区域；2)在适当的条件下，在空中播撒地形云，即使在发生自然降水的条件下，也会引起云的微物理性质和降水的变化；3)对于所有的Snowie情况，播撒对山脉盆地上空降水的影响可以定量地估计，并通过使用利用观测数据改进的播撒参数化的数值模拟来确定不确定性。NSF支持的研究人员将与国家大气研究中心和爱达荷州电力公司的研究人员合作。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Precipitation enhancement through cloud seeding has taken place in the Western United States and other regions around the globe for several decades. One of the main weather regimes where cloud seeding is attempted is in mountainous terrain in areas where there is a significant amount of liquid water in the clouds. Direct observational evidence of the chain of events from the release of cloud seeding material to the formation of precipitation was shown in data from a recent NSF-supported field campaign. This award will provide researchers with the opportunity to further analyze data from that campaign to answer additional questions about the science behind cloud seeding. The research represents a public-private partnership between NSF-sponsored scientists and a utility that provides hydroelectric power. The next generation of scientists will also be trained during this project.The research team will expand upon the analysis of field campaign data from the Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE) that was conducted in 2017. Initial results have shown that cloud seeding in orographic regions can initiate snowfall in certain situations. The research team will move beyond the obvious cases of cloud seeding impacts to analyze every case during the campaign, including those where cloud seeding was conducted while natural snowfall was also occurring. The overarching goal of the project is to provide estimates, with uncertainty limits, of precipitation enhancement from glaciogenic cloud seeding for all SNOWIE seeding events. This will involve coupling data analysis using the SNOWIE data set and state of the art modeling. The researchers have identified a set of questions to address the following research hypotheses: 1) Mesoscale and microscale updrafts observed in mostly stratiform orographic clouds are focal areas for the production of supercooled liquid water and sometimes natural ice particles, 2) Airborne seeding of orographic clouds, under the right conditions, will produce changes in microphysical properties of clouds and precipitation detectable with in-situ and remote sensors, even in conditions where natural precipitation is occurring, and 3) For all SNOWIE cases, seeding impacts on precipitation over a mountain basin can be estimated quantitatively, and uncertainties established, through numerical simulations employing seeding parameterizations improved utilizing analyses from the observations. NSF-supported researchers will collaborate with researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Idaho Power Company.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.