PHYSICAL VIEW OF CLOUD SEEDING

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April 10, 1970
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 FROM DATE. ~~ L , ~ % `f TO INITIALS DA E REMARKS DIRECTOR ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ DEP DIRECTOR A, '^a ~ ~~ EXEC/DIRECTOR SPECIAL ASST % ASST TO DIR HISTORIAN CH PPBS DEP CH PPBS EXO PPBS -- __- - 1,U L 3 ~_ . x~, ~ ~. CH;SS ~~ r ;,,. DEP CH-SS SC$P RECORDS MGT PERSONNEL LOGISTICS TRAINING SECURITY FINANCE CH IEG DEP CH IEG EXO IEG CH PSG DEP CH PSG EXO PSG CH;TSG DEP CH TSG EXO;'TSG DIR; IAS/DDI CHr'DIAXX-4 --- - -- - CH; DIAAP-9 CHiSPAD Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20506 August 6, 1970 ARGO Steering Committee Members In view of the Steering Committee's interest in the possibility of modifying storms such as the one which hit Lubbock, Texas, the attached paper by Myron Tribus is furnished for your information. STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Preprinted from the 10 April 1970 issue SCIENCE Physical View of Cloud Seeding A review of experimental data indicates that we are considerably further ahead than is generally realized. Myron Tribus From the very beginning of cloud seeding in 1946, the subject has been contl?oversial. There are many reasons for the controversies, not the least of which have been the strong personali- ties, beliefs, and convictions of the people involved. Throughout it all there has been an underlying uncertainty about weather phenomena in general. The question "Would it have rained, anyway?" has been unanswered and, until recently, unanswerable. In this article I wish to present some views based on 25 years of intermittent association with this field. For the last decade I have been intensely involved in studies on the foundations of in- ductive logic and scientific inference. These two fielfls are basic to attempts to establish scientific hypotheses about weather modification. In the title of this paper I have emphasized the word physical because I wish to distinguish it from the statistical view. The distinc- tion is extremely important to the plan- ning and the prosecution of research. Statistical methods now routinely em- ployed do not, in general, take into ac- count known mechanisms or the physics of a process. I have written elsewhere on this weakness (1) and have used the following example: Suppose I claimed clairvoyant capabilities and, in support of this claim, I correctly predicted the makeup of the front page of the New York Trmes one week in advance, down to the smallest detail, including a few typographical errors. Would not your common sense tell you my claim was valid? For problems that use as evidence the results of a single ob- servation, there are no classical statis- tical procedures. Most of us rely on common sense when evaluating this type of problem. It is possible (1) to develop procedures that can handle this class of problem, but the new proce- dures have not yet been generally ac- cepted as valid by the majority of statisticians. (See the appendix for a brief mathematical analysis of the prob- lems of clairvoyance and weather modi- fication.) It is my belief, however, that the methods will be accepted in the rot too distant future. The reason is simple: today we are dealing with many problems that require these new tech- niques, and necessity is still the mother of invention. As I have argued (1), the main weak- ness of most existing statistical ap- proaches is that they do not permit us to use all that we really know. It is not that the available methods are "wrong"-it is that they are inadequate. Cloud seeding is a complex process. During the process there are many intermediate stages of development, each with its own measurable charac- teristics. Thus, when a cloud is seeded, we observe such variables as the cloud base height, the updraft velocity distri- bution, the radar echoes from the core, the rate of growth of the top of the cloud, the pattern of the convective activity, the temperature distribution and the time at which water starts to fall from the cloud, where the water falls, and how much evaporates. When we compare these results with the pre- diction of a digital computer, a single observation in which we obtain very good agreement in all details obviously weighs more heavily in our minds than does a single statistical measure which merely considers the ratio of rainfall measured in gauges for seeded and nonseeded clouds. Of course, we must observe a few nonseeded clouds, in the same fine detail, to see if their behavior agrees with our computer pre- diction. But our common sense tells us that experiments that reveal this fine detail are more significant than experi- ments that do not. The issue is not a trivial exercise in logic-a mere comparison of prefer- ences as regards the proof of scientific claims. The perspective adopted de- termines how an experiment is planned and therefore how much money is spent in coming to a particular state of knowledge. Usually the biggest single item of expense involves the operation of aircraft. In addition to the capital costs of aircraft and sophisticated in- strumentation, such factors as the cost of flight crews, fuel, and aircraft over- haul make each hour of flight time very expensive. Today it is not uncommon for experimenters to fly about half the missions without seeding, just to produce some "randomized re- sults." My quarrel is not with the va- lidity of the statistical approach-it is whether the classical statistical ap- proach to design of experiments ought to be followed without regard to the expense. A more useful tool is decision analysis, which adds statistical consid- erations to cost parameters. Some ex- perimenters, incidentally, recognize this fact intuitively and bias the randomiza- tion by making the odds two to one in favor of seeding on a given flight. Even if decision analysis is used, how- Dr. Tribus is Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology of the U.S. Department of Com- merce and is chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee for Atmospheric Sciences of the Fed- eral Council for Science and Technology. Thls paper was presented at the Second National Con- ference on Weather Modification, held in Santa Barbara, California, from 6 to 9 Aprll 1970. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 ever, it should not be applied without taking into account the physics of the process. Decisions are based on de- scriptions, and it is important that, in the process of developing a statistical description of our state of knowledge, we not ignore some data just because our mathematical tools cannot encom- pass them. The key to what we call scientific understanding is the elucidation of mechanisms-that is, chains of events- each of which we can understand and link with others to describe an out- come. If all these individual events per- mit different outcomes, the final out- come may indeed be so variable as to make it very difficult to prove our knowledge by study of only the final outcome. If purely statistical methods are employed, some intermediate measures (that is, parameters) may be included in a statistical analysis via "stratification," but stratification re- quires that there be more, not fewer, data points to reach a given "confidence level." In systems as complex as meteor- ological ones, I argue that we will move ahead faster if we spend money to get a greater variety of carefully planned observations instead of a greater number. I wish to consider first the general scientific view of cloud seeding and then particularize this view to specific applications. Then I shall return to the use and misuse of statistics in this field. As Joanne Simpson (2) has ob- served, analyses of cloud seeding may be considered to be either static or dynamic. A static analysis is one in which the natural flow field is not markedly affected by seeding. Static analysis seems to be appropriate to quiescent cloud chamber experiments, stratus clouds, and orographic lifting such as occurs either at a mountain range or in the frictional boundary layer where the wind over water first meets the land. In orographic lifting the buoyancy forces generated by seed- ing are usually too weak to cause a relative motion between air masses. The resultant motions of air are nearly the same with and without seeding. The practical effect is that, in describing the fluid flow field, the energy and mo- mentum equations are decoupled and may be solved separately. In a dynamic analysis, on the other hand, intervention markedly affects the flow field (for example, by artificial buoyancy), and the gross features of the cloud may be greatly modified by the presence or absence of phase changes in the cloud water. Complete diagnostic analyses are more difficult to perform because they inherently in- volve solving the equations of motion of a three-phase system (air, water, ice) in a nonisothermal field with the energy and momentum equations inextricably linked together. Although complete solutions starting from the primitive equation of energy, momentum, ther- modynamic state, and rate processes would be desirable, they have not been obtained for many, even simpler sys- tems in meteorology. It is not a weak- ness peculiar to cloud seeding that we must be satisfied, as of now, with approximate solutions. The approxi- mate solutions for mixing, diffusion, and cloud droplet growth can be in- dividually checked and put together to form a system of equations. Even the approximations are quite complex, and a digital computer is essential if any analysis at all is to be carried out. Computer analysis is therefore an essential adjunct of useful experimen- tation, for experiment without analysis cannot provide the basis for prediction. Certain features are common to both static and dynamic analyses. In both, it is postulated that humid air is cooled by expansion and that initially small droplets of water are formed, too tiny to fall relative to the air. In the cloud chamber (3) the expansion rate may be controlled by evacuation pumps. In orographic lifting the rate of ex- pansion of cloud mass is often con- trolled by the larger circulation pat- terns, which impose the motion but are relatively unaffected by cloud seeding. In cumulus clouds, on the other hand, the rate of expansion is deter- mined by the buoyancy forces, which in turn are determined by the conden- sation rate and by the vertical variation of the basic horizontal velocity field (which is why I said the equations of energy and momentum were inextrica- bly linked). When the cloud temperature goes below 0?C, most of the droplets do not turn to ice but remain supercooled. The size of the droplets at any stage depends upon the number of conden- sation nuclei present in the original air mass, the rate of cooling, the origi- nal humidity, and the number of vari- ous kinds of freezing nuclei present- Lhat is, substances that catalyze the transition from water to ice. We still do not have adequate information on the number of ice and condensation nuclei necessary to initiate and sustain the precipitation process. Techniques now in use have exhibited inconsisten- cies up to 9 orders of magnitude when employed by various investigators. De- velopment of more accurate methods for measuring these particles together with increased studies of the basic mechanisms of the nucleation process are urgently needed; if successful, they will result in more efficient cloud seed- ing techniques. Langmuir (4) has described the fu- rious competition between small and large drops which results in the growth of large ones at the expense of the small. This competition is greatly af- fected by the rate of expansion (which may be so large as to cause all drops to grow), the temperature (low tem- peratures reduce vapor pressures and hence growth rates), and the presence of freezing nuclei. Since the vapor pressure of ice is much lower than that of supercooled water at the same temperature, all liquid water drops tend to vaporize into the freezing nuclei, thereby liberating additional heat of freezing and artificial buoyancy. Also, the lowered saturation vapor pressure causes more condensation from the cloud air mass, which further enhances buoyancy. The "triggering effect" pan be spectacular; it can create in seeded clouds strengthened updrafts leading to a vertical growth 4 to 5 kilometers higher than the tops of unseeded clouds. This growth leads to further conden- sation and frequently to increased "nat- ural" precipitation. Of cuurse the effect of the introduc- tion of "artificial" freezing nuclei into a cloud depends in part upon how many were already there from "natural" causes. I put quotation marks around the words "artificial" and "natural" because at many locations man's activi- ties now so pollute the atmosphere that we cannot always distinguish "nat- ural" from "artificial." The behavior of the particles in a cloud is strongly dependent upon the interaction among nuclei, velocity field, and temperature. For a given amount of condensation, the more nuclei there are, the smaller the droplets will be. Small droplets will fall relative to the air more slowly than large ones and may, therefore, be carried up within the cloud. The temperature determines not only the amount of water vapor Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 in saturated air; it also has an im- portant effect upon diffusion and growth processes. In a few systems, especially systems in which the air motion is not affected by the thermal processes as- sociated with condensation, it is pos- sible to find simple solutions to the cloud growth equations without re- course to a digital computer. Lang- muir's "time of rise" treatment of a cloud growth on Mount Washington is an example (S). In this work Lang- muir successfully predicted the sizes of drops that would be measured at the summit, though he worked only with information about the cloud base height, the velocity of the wind (which determines the time for the droplets to pass from cloud base to summit), and the temperature. But usually the equations are so complex that they can be handled only on a digital computer. When the energy released during condensation is large, the cloud density changes. The velocity field is then de- termined by the difference between the density that occurs inside the cloud and the density outside the cloud. If this density difference between the in- side and the outside of the cloud is large, the result can be an extremely strong updraft in the cloud. This differ- ence depends strongly on the ambient humidity and temperature lapse rate. In tropical clouds, which develop in a moist environment, it is not uncommon to see a cloud grow to 15,000 meters. Since the buoyancy effects are inte- grated over the vertical extent of a cloud, under some conditions seeding from the top can kill the cloud. This effect occurs when a dry stable layer surrounds the cloud's midsection with a less stable layer above. Then seeding can cause a too rapid growth of the cloud top compared with the conden- sation rate beneath it. Cold air comes in from the side and causes the top of the cloud to break away from the base. The total buoyancy force avail- able within the cloud is thus diminished, and the base collapses. There are more considerations. When cloud drops grow large enough to fall, they descend through smaller drops, collecting and coalescing as they go. The dynamics of this collection process have been extensively studied, both ex- perimentally (4) and analytically. Cloud seeding therefore involves many considerations of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, diffusion, thermodynam- ics, two-phase flow, particle dynamics, and surface chemistry. Instrumentation includes radars, reconnaissance aircraft, precipitation gauges, radiosondes, drop- sondes, kites, cloud photography, and the human eye. Predicting detailed be- havior in such a complex system re- sembles the problem of predicting the front page makeup of the New York Times. The interplay of these effects can produce bewildering results for those who take the pragmatic view that all that counts is the results and who pay no attention to the elucidation of mech- anisms. Thus, at very low temperatures there are many kinds of particles that can act as ice-nucleating agents. At higher temperatures, there are fewer active nuclei. Seeding at low tempera- tures, therefore, may produce anover- seeded condition and reduce the rain- fall. Seeding at higher temperatures can increase the rainfall. Even the level in the cloud at which the seeding occurred may make a difference. Neyman ana- lyzed the Whitetop experiment statisti- cally by lumping all seedings together and counting only rainfall. He thereby showed there had been a net decrease in rainfall due to cloud seeding (6). But Fleuck (7) analyzed the same data, this time stratified as to maximum radar echo top heights, and showed that low cloud tops (less than 6100 meters above mean sea level) resulted in slight but not statistically significant decreases in precipitation, that intermediate cloud tops were associated with substantial increases, and that sufficiently high lops (more than 12,200 meters above mean sea level) favored significant decreases. The Neyman and Flueck analyses do not conflict. It is true, as Neyman says, that indiscriminate seeding without complete knowledge of the physics in- volved can lead to an unintended re- sult. But Flueck's calculations also show that knowledge of the basic mechanisms involved permits the selection of opti- mum techniques for desired control. Neyman's methods of analysis do not admit the use of whatever insights were available from other experiments about the physics of the process. On the postulate that all future seeding activities will be conducted in equal ignorance, Neyman's warnings certainly follow from his analysis. But, as I have written elsewhere, we do know more than what is learned by reading rain gauges (8). It was on this basis that I asserted that we are closer to the capability to do operational cloud seed- ing than Neyman's article indicated. Let us turn to a review of the experi- ences upon which that assertion is based. Orographic lifting is one of the simpler cases to analyze because, even with seeding, the resultant buoyancy forces are usually too weak to have much effect on the overall motion. In a fixed fluid flow field, the instrumen- tation can be used to measure many details of the system with or without seeding. The broad-scale synoptic situation induces a flow up the mountainside, which in turn produces a cloud that appears to hang motionless over the top of the mountain. Actually the cloud is extremely active, with moisture en- tering the cloud base and droplets growing as the air ascends. Vaporiza- tion takes place on the lee side as the air is compressed. At the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, under the spon- sorship of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Defense, Or- ville (9) has used detailed descriptions summarized by Kessler (10) (see Fig. 1) to study the effect of the various precipitation processes in a numerical simulation of cloud development over' a mountain barrier. The mathematical model is two-dimensional and incor- porates a vertical wind shear and an initially stable, incompressible atmo- sphere. The rain shower model is pro- grammed so that each cloud affects its own development during its life cycle. As the multiple clouds form and grow into the mature stage, cloud shadow effects combine with the downdraft in- fluences that result from evaporative processes. The behavior of the clouds is most realistic, and it will be of great interest to compare Orville's results with field measurements. Under National Science Foundation sponsorship, Lewis Grant and his col- leagues at Colorado State University have produced what may be regarded as a classic experiment in atmospheric sciences. Figure 2 shows the system that Grant chose for study (3). By using scale models, they have investi- gated the flow field over the mountain and have compared it with field mea- surements obtained by radiosondes, constant-level balloons, and tethered kites and parafoils. In a dynamic cloud chamber they have observed the rates of droplet growth and nucleation under conditions approximating conditions on the mountain. With tracer techniques they have tracked the release of par- ticles from ground-based generators to learn how to put nuclei where they Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Cloud water (liquid) Autoconversion accretion Lc =0 T 1, p(H~DX) -~ 1 and, as x -~ 0, p(H~DX) -> 0.] (ii) If x is not exceptionally close to 1, find an experiment in which z Q xy. If xy ~ 0 (that is, HD not impos- sible) , Eq. 6 may be divided by xy to give P(HIDX) = 1/[1 + (1 -x)/x(z/y)] If x is neither close to 0 or 1 (that is, the hypothesis is seriously in question), the value of p(H~DX) depends mainly on z/y; that is, it depends on the likeli- hood of finding D true on H or h. We can make this clear by simple ex- amples. Suppose I were to claim as my hy- pothesis H that I could dissolve a stratus cloud by putting COZ pellets into it, and to support my claim I predict- ably produced, as data D, the General Electric monogram burned into a cloud over Schenectady at a specified place and time. Clearly, for such evidence z/y is extremely small, and, since we have said x ~ 0, p(H~DX) ~ 1. In other words, my ability to dissolve stratus clouds can be proven by very few ex- periments or even by only one of this type. On the other hand, if I only burn a small hole in the cloud, even though z/y is a large number, p(H~DX) is larger than x but is not raised up to unity. Here I will need a large number of randomized experiments to prove my hypothesis. This result coincides with the commonsense observation that wa often see holes in clouds (z is not zero). It is the design of the experiment that determines the number of tests. The words "predictably produce" are very important. There are patterns to be found in every random sequence, if we just look hard enough and creatively enough. Langmuir and Schaefer re- ported (D') a 7-day national cycle in rainfall when they were seeding in New Mexico on a 7-day period; this fact would have had a very pro- nounced effect on the subsequent state of science if they had predicted it in advance. The fact they did not predict it in advance does not make p(H~D'X ) smaller than p(H~X), but it does mean that the assignment of a value to p(H~D'X) depends more on X (other knowledge) than on D'. If any one observation, say D", has about the same probability given H true as it does given h true, it will take a large amount of data to produce a value of z/y which is very persuasive. Such cases correspond to observing a D" which is of itself not very surprising. It takes a large collection of different D" to be persuasive. In such cases, random- ized experiments are indeed essential. But, we may also make progress in physics and its many derivative branches of science by the performance of "critical, experiments," which are ex- periments which enable us to verify in fine detail a complex theory. When the predictive process and the instrumenta- tion have been properly designed, and if the prediction concerns a very com- plex process, there is no need for ran- domization. If these conditions cannot be met, randomized "blind" runs are essential. As Bayes' equation demon- strates, the cases in which randomized experiments are necessary and the cases in which randomized experiments are rot necessary merge smoothly into one another. It is only necessary to make an analysis in each case to decide which conditions can be made to pertain. 1. M. Tribus, Rational Descriptions, Decisions, and Designs (Pergamon, New York, 1%9). 2. J. Simpson, Med. Opin. Rev. S, 39 (1969). 3. N. Fukuta, J, Meteorol. 15, 17 (1938). 4. I. Langmuir, ibid. S, 175, (1946). 5. in The Collected Works of Irving Langmuir (Pergamon, New York, 1961), vol. l o. 6. I. Neyman, E. Scott, J. A. Smith, Selence 163, 1445 (1%9). 7. J. Flueck, Final Report of Protect Whltefop (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, in press), part S. 8. M. Tribus, Science 164, 1341 (1%9). 9. J, Y. Liu and H. D. Orville, J. Atmos. Sci. 26, 1283 (1969). 10. E. Kessler, Meteorol. Monogr, 10, No. 32 (1969), 11. L. O. Grant and P. W. Mielke, Jr., in Pro- ceedings of the Fi/th Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, 1%S), p. 113; P. W. Mielke, Jr., L. O. Grant, C. F. Chap- pell, private communications; 1. E. Cermak, L. O, Grant, M. M. Orgill, private communi- cation. 12. R. D. Elliott, papers presented at the Project Skywater Conference on Modeling, Denver, Colorado, 10 February 1970. 13. R. L. Lavoie, thesis, Pennsylvania State Uni- versity (1%8). Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2 14. Warm fogs at airports are also dissipated by use of sprays of various hygroscopic ma- terials, but this matter is not of concern here. Suffice it to say that several companies offer this service at various airports in the United States. 13. J. Simpson, Rev. Geophys. 3, 387 (1%S); I. Simpson. G. W. Brier, R. H. Simpson, J. Armos. Scl. 24, 508 (1%7); J. Simpson and V. Wiggert, Mon. Weather Rev. 97, 471 (1%9); J. Simpson et al., J. Appl. Meteorol., in press. 16. G. K. Sulakvelidze, Trudy (High-Altitude Geophys. Inst. Nalchik, U.S.S.R.) No, 7 (1966). 17. L. J. Batten, Bufl. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 51, 925 (1%9). I8. R. A. Schleusener, J. Appl. Mcterol. 7, 1004 (1968). 19. F. A. Ludlam, Nubile 1, % (1958). 20. R. H. Douglas, Meteorol. Monogr. S, No. 27, 157 (1963). 21. D. J. Musil, Rep, 69-11 (Institute of Atmo- spheric Sciences, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, 1%9). 22. A. S. Dennis, paper presented before the Weather Modification Association Meeting (September 1%9). [Available as Pap, 69-73 (Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, 1969)]. 23. T. J. Henderson, in Proceedingr of the Fist National Conference on Weather Mod/fication (American Meteorological Society, Boston, 1%8), p. 474. 24. R. C. Gentry, Buli. Amer. Meteorol. Soc, St, 404 (t%9). 23. R. H. Simpson and I. S. Malkus, Sci. Amer, 211, 27 (1%S). 26. D. M. Fuquay and R. G. Baughman, "Project Skyfirc Lightning Research" (final report to National Science Foundation under grant GP-2617, U.S. Forest Service, Missoula, Montana, 1%9). 27. By the Phrase "proceed to operational weather modification," I mean the development of a specific timetable of operations to proceed to pilot and then to regular operations spe- cifically aimed at filling asocial need. The bcation of the pibt operation should be choun on the basis of economic and social, not sci- entific, objectives. The observations should be aimed at improving the operation, not merely the state of scientific knowledge. 28. M. Tribus, statement before the Subcommit- tee on Science, Research, and Development of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 2 December 1%9. 29. speech presented at the Sixth Tech- nical Conference on Hurricanes, 2-4 Decem- ber 1%9, Miami Beach, Florida. 30. I thank Robert M. White, loame Simp- son, Joachim Kuettner, Vincent I. Schaefer, Richard A. Schleusener, and Lewis O. Grant for critically reviewing this paper and pro- viding many helpful suggestions. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/03/25 :CIA-RDP80T01137A000200030004-2