Greetings:

Howard Kidwell here, and I flew RF-4's with the 14th TRS at Udorn, Thailand 1970-71.

While there, I kept hearing the call sign "Motorpool" used by two of crews in the 14th. When I inquired what they did, I got the usual reply that it was Top Secret and no one knew. I knew the crews and they wouldn't say zip. This grows on a guy, and I had to find out what was going on. So, dummy me, I volunteered. Well, in a little while I was interviewed and told they would get a higher security clearance for me. In a few short weeks and I was told to come to Motorpool Ops for a briefing. (I found out later that friends and relatives in the states were contacted about me). The Lt Col in charge said the room had been swept for monitoring devices, etc., and I had one last chance to withdraw my volunteer statement. I had fleeting thoughts of flying over China, working for the CIA, you name it... but what the heck. I signed the statement and found out that I was going to make rain! Geez! I thought they were kidding! Not so, and soon I was flying with a Motorpool guy or Squadron GIB (Guy-in-Back) cleared for Motorpool ops.

The RF-4 could carry 52 photoflash carts or chaff carts on each side. We carried chaff to defeat Fire-Can or SAM Radars (more on chaff later). The "rain making stuff" was carried in these racks.
During the rainy season each crew flew once a day, on the average, in addition to regular missions. A "scout" plane (WC-130) would call back and "scramble" us -- giving us a flight level, which was usually 19,000. We would go into the roll cloud (or whatever you WX guys call it) by the side of each thunderstorm. When it got to raining like crazy we would pickle off a cart, count to 5, pickle off another one and then you were out in the blue, made a 360 degree turn and, like magic, another thunderstorm had usually formed and you did the same thing again. It was all over Laos and we would go over the passes to do our thing.

5) The best published discussion of the USAF rain-making effort in Southeast Asia can be found in John Fuller's Thor's Legions. Fuller and Charles Bates briefly discussed this activity in their earlier work, America's Weather Warriors. An article on the 1966 test missions over Laos can be found in the December 1997 issue of VIETNAM magazine. Precious little else has ever been seen in print about this intriguing operation.

THE A-MODELS
LOCKHEED C/N USAF S/N WHERE IS IT NOW?
3127 56-0519 Last seen at Tan Son Nhut in 1999, a derelict
3130 56-0522 Kelly AFB as a load trainer, IAAFA (no wings)
3145 56-0537 Broken up for parts at Marana, AZ, January 1999

Few aviation writers and historians seem to be aware that there were three WC-130As. These three were originally trash-haulers, borrowed from TAC in late 1966 for use in Operation "Popeye", the rain-making mission in Southeast Asia, set to begin the following year. The intent of the mission was to create enough year-round rain to keep the Ho Chi Minh trails impassable with mud5. Tests were conducted over Laos in 1966, and the operational missions began in March of 1967 from Udorn RTAFB, Thailand. They were flown by crews of the 54th WRS, rotated on a regular basis from Guam. In addition, 54th crews were sometimes called upon to conduct synoptic weather reconnaissance from Udorn over various areas of Southeast Asia, out to and including the Bay of Bengal.

The A-models were modified for weather reconnaissance, probably at WRAMA, with the AN/AMR-1 system2. They were not configured for atmospheric sampling. Two were kept at Udorn, with the third rotating to and from Guam for maintenance, repair, and crew changes, from June 1967 through late 1970. When the third one was not enroute to/from Thailand, it was used for normal weather reconnaissance activities from Guam. In late 1970 the A's were replaced with three 1958 B-models, and the rain-making mission continued through mid-1972 with whichever B- or E-models were available from the 54th. After re-conversion to transport, the A's were transferred to Air Force Reserve units. During their brief stint as rain-makers, they flew a total of 1435 "combat" sorties, and it is reported that at least one of them received battle damage. All three A-models wore the standard Southeast Asia camouflage colors and markings, but with no unit designations of any kind. In 1973, 56-0519 was given or loaned to the South Vietnamese Air Force, and it became one of the spoils of war on April 30, 1975. The last reliable sighting was in April of 1999, which reported her corroded and derelict at Tan Son Nhut Airport, Ho Chi Minh City.

9) In the mid-1960s, Elmendorf AFB, near Anchorage, Alaska, and Rhein-Main AB, near Weisbaden, Germany, were critical to USAF operations in Europe and the Pacific. These bases were located in areas that were very susceptible to "super-cooled" or frozen fog, and anytime these bases were fogged in, it created serious disruptions to USAF missions.

Scientists had discovered years before that seeding this type of fog with powdered dry ice would clear the fog by creating snow. Many experiments were performed to develop an appropriate seeding method, and eventually a suitable crusher was developed. The task of clearing the fog at these bases was given to the Air Weather Service.

Therefore, from 1966 through 1972, the 54th WRS packed up and moved to Elmendorf for the seeding season, which usually began in November and ended in mid-February. Likewise, the 53rd WRS conducted similar operations in Germany.

The ice crusher was a massive, roaring, clattering device that literally hammered 10-pound blocks of dry ice into powder. The dry ice was kept in insulated ice chests which were strapped to the cargo deck. Each 10-pound block was loaded into the crusher by hand.

The end result is powdered dry ice that merely drops through the hole where the dropsonde dispenser had been, and scatters in the wake turbulence of the aircraft. The dry ice caused frozen fog particles to join together, and the resultant heavier particles fell to the ground as snow, thus clearing the fog. It was a very successful, though expensive, operation. Later, other cheaper methods were developed to dissipate the fog, but none have been quite as effective.

Project STORMFURY was an ambitious experimental program of research on hurricane modification carried out between 1962 and 1983. The proposed modification technique involved artificial stimulation of convection outside the eyewall through seeding with silver iodide. The invigorated convection, it was argued, would compete with the original eyewall, lead to reformation of the eyewall at larger radius, and thus, through partial conservation of angular momentum, produce a decrease in the strongest winds.

Accession Number : AD0723815

Title : GROMET II: Rainfall Augmentation in the Philippine Islands.

Descriptive Note : Technical publication,

Corporate Author : NAVAL WEAPONS CENTER CHINA LAKE CALIF

Personal Author(s) : St.-Amand,P. ; Reed,D. W. ; Wright,T. L. ; Elliott,S. D.

Report Date : MAY 1971

Pagination or Media Count : 133

Abstract : A severe drought in the Philippine Islands during 1968 and 1969 led the Philippine Government to try cloud seeding as a means of rainfall augmentation. With the help of the United States, a silver iodide seeding project, GROMET II, was conducted over the entire archipelago from the end of April through mid-June 1969. Pyrotechnically generated silver iodide was released in updrafts in growing clouds, and through judicial placement and timing of seeding events individual clouds were organized into larger cloud systems. Rainfall estimated as at least 3 x 10 to the 10th power cubic meters of water fell from seeded clouds. The precise extent of rainfall augmentation resulting from seeding cannot be calculated; nonetheless, rainfall augmentation from tropical cumulus clouds was accomplished in a simple operational manner. Benefits derived, at least in part, from the project included marked improvement in the agriculture, increased sugar production amounting to 43 million U.S. dollars, and augmented crops of rice and corn sufficient to make anticipated importation unnecessary. In addition, local personnel were trained in seeding techniques. Because of the success of GROMET II the Government of the Philippines conducted a similar operation during 1970 and planned another for 1971. (Author)

Descriptors : *ARTIFICIAL PRECIPITATION, PHILIPPINES, IODIDES, NUCLEATION, PYROTECHNICS, CLOUDS, RAINFALL.

Subject Categories : METEOROLOGY

Distribution Statement : APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

On August 15, 1952, one of the worst flash floods ever to have occurred in Britain swept through the Devon village of Lynmouth. Thirty five people died as a torrent of 90m tons of water and thousands of tons of rock poured off saturated Exmoor and into the village destroying homes, bridges, shops and hotels.

The disaster was officially termed "the hand of God" but new evidence from previously classified government files suggests that a team of international scientists working with the RAF was experimenting with artificial rainmaking in southern Britain in the same week and could possibly be implicated.

Article continues
Squadron Leader Len Otley, who was working on what was known as Operation Cumulus, has told the BBC that they jokingly referred to the rainmaking exercise as Operation Witch Doctor.

Survivors called for an investigation into the causes, and rumours of planes circling prior to the deluge.

The Ministry of Defence has denied knowledge of so called "cloud-seeding" experiments during early August 1952.

Tony Speller asked to see Ministry of Defence files when he was MP for North Devon under Margaret Thatcher.

The North Dakota Cloud Modification Project (NDCMP) is an operational program that seeds clouds for hail reduction and rain enhancement in all or parts of six counties in western North Dakota. Counties currently participating in the program are Bowman, McKenzie, Mountrail, Ward, Williams, and part of Slope.

Weather modification is also commonly known as cloud seeding, cloud modification, atmospheric resource management, and precipitation management. Weather Modification, Inc. specializes and excels in all aspects of this water management technology.

Specifically, we offer a complete range of services from turn-key operational programs for rainfall increase (rain enhancement), snow pack augmentation, hail damage mitigation (hail suppression), and fog clearing (fog dissipation), to technical assistance and/or technology transfer for all of these.

In addition, we can provide complete weather radar services, including interfaces with TITAN full-sky radar data archival software, a complete line of proven and FAA-approved seeding equipment, seeding aircraft, atmospheric research instrumentation, and aircraft modification for these purposes.

Weather Modification Training

The main results of a randomized hail suppression experiment, Grossversuch IV, are presented in this paper. Grossversuch IV tested the `Soviet' hail prevention method during five years (1977-81). The field experiment took place in central Switzerland with the participation of research groups from France, Italy and Switzerland

Successivamente l’attenzione si è spostata su alcuni casi sperimentali di inseminazione artificiale delle nuvole effettuati in Puglia tra il 1992 al 1994. L’approccio di modifica del tempo che è stato utilizzato in Puglia è basato sul cosiddetto schema del processo relativo alla pioggia fredda ed è stato attuato mediante semina delle nuvole con ioduro d'argento: Agi. Gli esperimenti del “Progetto Pioggia” sono stati condotti operando in maniera casuale su due distinte aree geografiche pugliesi (aree bersaglio di Canosa e Bari) dentro le quali é stato possibile raccogliere dati dalle stazioni de:
- il Servizio meteo A.M.;
- il Servizio idrografico del ministero dei LL.PP.; (Servizio Idrografico e Mareografico Nazionale – SIMN)
- la Rete agro meteorologica nazionale;
- Una densa rete di stazioni ad alta risoluzione spazio-temporale installata dall’UCEA nel 1992 (Rete Controllo Progetto Pioggia).