The dispersion of silver iodide particles from ground-based generators over complex terrain. Part I: Observations with acoustic ice nucleus counters

These flights, conducted during February and early March of 2011, were part of the Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project. Effective targeting of ground-based silver iodide plumes to supercooled clouds has long been a problem for winter orographic cloud-seeding projects.

Surface-based ice nucleus (IN) measurements made at a fixed location near the Medicine Bow Range target area had confirmed the effective transport of IN plumes in many cases, but not all. Airborne plume tracing, undertaken to further illuminate the processes involved, provided additional insight into the plume behavior while providing physical measurements that were later compared with large-eddy-simulation modeling (Part II).