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

几十年来，美国西部和地球仪的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状况之一是在云中有大量液态水的山区地形中。 从云催化物质的释放到降水形成的事件链的直接观测证据显示在最近NSF支持的实地活动的数据中。 该奖项将为研究人员提供进一步分析该活动数据的机会，以回答有关播云背后科学的其他问题。 这项研究代表了NSF资助的科学家和提供水力发电的公用事业公司之间的公私合作伙伴关系。 下一代科学家也将在该项目期间接受培训。研究团队将扩大对2017年进行的播种和自然地形冬季云的实地活动数据的分析：爱达荷州实验（SNOWIE）。 初步结果表明，在某些情况下，在地形区域进行人工降雨可以引发降雪。 研究小组将超越播云影响的明显案例，分析活动期间的每一个案例，包括在自然降雪发生时进行播云的案例。 该项目的总体目标是提供所有“雪灾”播云活动的冰川云播云增雨估计数，并规定不确定性限度。 这将涉及使用SNOWIE数据集和最先进的建模进行耦合数据分析。 研究人员确定了一系列问题来解决以下研究假设：1）在大多数层状地形云中观察到的中尺度和微尺度上升气流是过冷液态水和有时天然冰粒产生的焦点区域，2）在适当的条件下，地形云的空中播种，将产生云和降水的微物理性质的变化，即使在自然降水发生的条件下，也可以用现场和遥感器检测到，以及3）对于所有的SNOWIE情况，通过数值模拟，利用观测分析改进的催化参数化，可以定量估计催化对山地盆地降水的影响，并建立不确定性。 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。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.