BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A five-year, $8.8 million cloud seeding pilot project is under way in Wyoming to see if it produces a measurable increase in snowfall.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research designed the experiment that will involve seeding clouds with silver iodide over Wyoming's Medicine Bow, Sierra Madre and Wind River mountain ranges.
NCAR and partner institutions are deploying both airborne and ground-based instruments Jan. 16-Feb. 13 and again March 10-31 to gather key data.
Scientists say even a 10-percent increase in snowpack in the project's targeted areas would provide up to 260,000 acre-feet of water in additional runoff each spring. The additional water is valued at $2.4 million-$4.9 million.
Starting next winter, pending permits, 24 ground-based generators will burn silver iodide and acetone solutions, creating plumes of silver iodide particles aimed at clouds upwind and over the target areas. Simultaneously, a Piper Cheyenne II twin-engine turboprop airplane will burn flares mounted on its wings to inject silver iodide into clouds at least 2,000 feet above the ground.
Silver iodide's ice-like particles attract a cloud's liquid water, which freezes around the particles to form snow.
