Winter time orographic cloud seeding effects in WRF simulations

The goal of this study is to use a numerical model to investigate the feasibility of orographic cloud seeding from existing ground-based generators and aircraft seeding tracks in the Payette, Eastern Idaho, and Western Wyoming regions operated by Idaho Power. The Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model coupled with an AgI point-source module was run at 2km horizontal resolution for 10 seeding cases including both ground-based and airborne cases from the 2010-2011 winter season. In all of the WRF simulations, a positive increase in precipitation was simulated within the entire model domain. This simulated enhancement was positive within the targeted watershed basins for about two-thirds of the cases. Some enhancements were simulated downwind of the target regions, which could be due to the wind regime and meteorological conditions, or due to model parameter specifications that could affect the location of a simulated seeding effect. The WRF simulations indicated that airborne seeding generally produces a localized seeding effect within a targeted region.