An Assessment of Winter Orographic Precipitation and Cloud-Seeding Potential in Wyoming

This paper presents an evaluation of the precipitation patterns and seedability of orographic clouds in Wyoming using SNOTEL precipitation data and a high-resolution multiyear model simulation over an 8-yr period. A key part of assessing the potential for cloud seeding is to understand the natural p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied meteorology and climatology 2020-07, Vol.59 (7), p.1217-1238
Main Authors: Tessendorf, Sarah A., Ikeda, Kyoko, Weeks, Courtney, Rasmussen, Roy, Wolff, Jamie, Xue, Lulin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric conditions
Cloud seeding
Cloud-precipitation relationships
Clouds
High resolution
Hydrologic data
Mountains
Orographic clouds
Orographic precipitation
Precipitation
Precipitation data
Precipitation patterns
Resolution
Winds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper presents an evaluation of the precipitation patterns and seedability of orographic clouds in Wyoming using SNOTEL precipitation data and a high-resolution multiyear model simulation over an 8-yr period. A key part of assessing the potential for cloud seeding is to understand the natural precipitation patterns and how often atmospheric conditions and clouds meet cloud-seeding criteria. The analysis shows that high-resolution model simulations are useful tools for studying patterns of orographic precipitation and establishing the seedability of clouds by providing information that is either missed by or not available from current observational networks. This study indicates that the ground-based seeding potential in some mountain ranges in Wyoming is limited by flow blocking and/or prevailing winds that were not normal to the barrier to produce upslope flow. Airborne seeding generally had the most potential for all of the mountain ranges that were studied.
ISSN:1558-8424
1558-8432
DOI:10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0219.1