Part II: Selected Domestic and Foreign Weather

Modification Information

Background and Introduction

This part provides selected highlights of domestic and foreign weather modification activities carried out generally in or just prior to CY 1975. It is based on information from technical publications, conference reports, contractors' reports, committee documents, news articles, and personal communications.

In preparing this report, an attempt has been made to cover meetings of national and international importance and to provide general information on events impinging on weather modification. Sections are also devoted to evaluations of State operational programs, to Federal and State legislation, legal actions, and foreign activities. References to foreign weather modification are not readily available; therefore, foreign highlights are not completely representative. Inadvertent weather modification is not discussed herein. In addition, Federal programs are not included as descriptions of agency programs are contained in the annual report of the Interdepartmental Committee for Atmospheric Sciences (1976).

The information that follows is not intended to be a complete survey of weather modification technology and its related aspects. Rather, the purpose of this part is to indicate the scope of weather modification activity during 1975, using readily available information. None of the sections is considered to have been treated exhaustively. Furthermore, in this brief compilation no attempt has been made to evaluate the various programs, projects, plans, studies, results, or decisions associated with the reference material.

Meetings and Organizations

Several national meetings took place during the year. These gatherings helped keep interested persons aware of weather modification activities and served as forums for discussions of technical, legislative, and other pertinent issues.

The Fourth Conference on Weather Modification, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society (AMS), was held on November 18-21, 1974, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The assembled papers are available in the form of a Conference Proceedings Volume from the AMS. Selected conference papers on the meteorological aspects of weather modification as

well as papers on the legal, social, economic, and ecological factors have been published along with an editorial overview of the subject. These are given in the AMS Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 14, No. 5, August 1975.

A Special Regional Weather Modification Conference. "Augmentation of Winter Orographic Precipitation in the Western U.S.", was convened in San Francisco, California, on November 11-13, 1975. This conference was sponsored by the AMS, the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of Interior, the Department of Water Resources of the State of California, and the Weather Modification Association. Sessions were devoted to scientific credibility and rationale for seeding; design, control, and evaluation of projects; and anticipated environmental, social, and economic impacts. Abstracts and unrefereed papers were published in one volume and may be obtained from the AMS.

The Weather Modification Association (WMA) generally holds two meetings a year. Their Spring meeting was held on March 20-21, 1975, at Santa Barbara, California. As is the usual practice, members and guests from both the Federal and non federal sectors reported on various weather modification activities. State programs in North and South Dakota were featured as were discussions on the need for a National Policy on weather modification and on other proposed legislation.

The WMA Fall meeting in Calgary, Canada, September 4-5, 1975, featured many papers on hail suppression, which have been published in a special edition of the Journal of Weather Modification (1975). Seven of the 17 published papers were concerned with the hail problem in Alberta. Descriptions of projects in Italy, Kenya, South Africa, Switzerland, United States, and the U.S.S. R. are also included in the volume.

A new weather modification group, the North American Interstate Weather Modification Council (NAIMWC), was organized in January 1975. This organization, with representatives from many States, Mexico, and the Canadian Provinces, was formed to assist governmental and private organizations in planning, designing, implementing, coordinating, and assessing operations and research and development associated with weather modification. It provides information to the general public and public officials, and serves as spokesman for the needs and views of the member jurisdictions. The NAIWMC is also involved with weather modification legislation at all levels and with appropriate regulatory agencies and coordinates and cooperates with the Weather Modification Association in those areas of interest to both groups.

The National Hail Research Experiment (NHRE) sponsored a Symposium and Workshop on "Hail and Its Suppression" at Estes Park Colorado, September 21-28, 1975. Major goals of the meetings were to establish

the essential thrusts and design features of a revised suppression experiment and to identify areas of auxiliary research. In conjunction with the papers presented at the symposium, working groups considered and reported on the following subjects (National Center for Atmospheric Research 1975): validation of concepts, conduct of the seeding experiment, evaluation, instrumentation, prediction of hail potential, and environmental/societal factors. The results of the symposium and workshop will be used as input in developing a program for the remaining years of the NHRE.

Coordination, Review, and Commentary

Within the United States there are several mechanisms for exchanging information, reviewing the technology, and commenting upon part or all of the aspects of weather modification. Federal, State, and common interest groups meet to coordinate, review, and recommend. Commentary is presented at meetings and hearings or is published. For example, the Bulletin of the AMS provides a forum for surveys and commentary. Examples of these activities are given in the following paragraphs.

Although funding for weather modification is only about 5 percent of the Federal budget for atmospheric sciences, much attention is given to research, development, and operations associated with this technolCoordination of agency plans is effected by the Interdepartmental Committee for Atmospheric Sciences (ICAS) of the Federal Council for Science and Technology (now the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology). The ICAS annual report with an appendix on weather modification gives the scope of the Federal program including fiscal data (ICAS 1976). Under ICAS sponsorship, the series of Interagency Conferences on Weather Modification continued with the 16th meeting at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, November 21-24, 1974. In addition to an exchange of information, workshops were instituted on specific issues. The 1975 conference was cancelled for budgetary reasons.

Three other groups carried out reviews of Federal weather modification research. The General Accounting Office (1974) was critical of the fragmented nature of previous programs and of the lack of central direction. In its annual report, the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA) (1975) recommended that NOAA be designated as lead agency for a coherent national program of weather modification research. NACOA also recommended that the Department of Agriculture mount a substantial program in weather modification research because agriculture is a principal beneficiary of weather modification and because there is a growing concern over the future adequacy of the world's food supply.

The Federal role in weather modification was examined by the Subcommittee on Climate Change, formed by the Environmental Resources

Committee of the U.S. Domestic Council (1975). Because of time and
resource limitations, the Subcommittee limited the scope of its work
to deliberate weather modification and domestic concerns.
As part

of its deliberations, the Subcommittee held a two-day open hearing
in May 1975 to hear the views of well-informed representatives of the
legal field, state governments, agriculturalists, conservation groups,
the commercial sector, and the scientific community associated with
weather modification. The Subcommittee report recommended that a
policy be adopted to provide a comprehensive and coordinated national
program in weather modification research and in the beneficial appli-
cation of the technology. It called for increased research funding,
additional fundamental research, greater emphasis on impact assess-
ment and on evaluation methods, and a decision on whether the na-
tional program be planned and coordinated via the ICAS or a lead
agency. In the area of operations, recommendations were made on
Federal areas of responsibility and on the use of private sector
capabilities in Federal weather modification operations where both
feasible and desirable. With respect to Federal regulatory legisla-
tion, the Subcommittee recommended the establishment of a formal pro-
cedure for the periodic reassessment of regulatory needs, but saw no
need for new Federal regulatory authority at this time.

With the intent of accelerating progress in weather modification, Droessler (1975) has suggested some proposals for action. To set the stage, he suggests that a National Commission on Weather Modification be established to chart the course for the next decade of activity and that Federal regulation of weather modification await the results of the Commission study. His other recommendations are that several current projects, such as STORMFURY, NHRE, and the Upper Colorado River Basin Snow Pack Augmentation Program, be given strong support and that the Department of Agriculture be brought more fully into weather modification.

An article by Changnon (1975) explored the paradox that federal support of weather modification had recently decreased despite recent major scientific-technical advances in weather modification and persistent recommendations by the scientific community for increased support. After a detailed review of the major advances, committee recommendations, fiscal data, and apparent causes for the reduced federal support, he offered reasons for the paradox. Changnon believed the basic issues are that weather modification is still an immature technology; that the socio-economic impacts are ill defined; and that its management has been uncertain. He felt that proper resolution of the paradox is more likely to occur as a result of either a dramatic scientific breakthrough or growing concerns about weather and climaterelated environmental changes.

The developments in weather-climate modification from 1971-1974 in the United States have been reviewed by Mordy (1974). His paper covers hazard mitigation, precipitation modification, inadvertent weather modification, seeding materials and delivery systems, evaluation methods,