. Compendium of meteorology. Meteorology. RELATION OF ARTIFICIAL CLOUD-MODIFICATION TO THE PRODUCTION OF PRECIPITATION By RICHARD D. COONS and ROSS GUNN Physical Research Division, U. S. Weather Bureau Introduction With the important discovery in 1946 that super- cooled cloud elements could be artificially converted to ice crystals by introducing pellets of carbon dioxide snow [11, 12], the possibility of human control of weather seemed imminent. Claims and speculation con- cerning the degree of possible weather control and the probable amount of artificially induced precipitation were rife, a
. Compendium of meteorology. Meteorology. RELATION OF ARTIFICIAL CLOUD-MODIFICATION TO THE PRODUCTION OF PRECIPITATION By RICHARD D. COONS and ROSS GUNN Physical Research Division, U. S. Weather Bureau Introduction With the important discovery in 1946 that super- cooled cloud elements could be artificially converted to ice crystals by introducing pellets of carbon dioxide snow [11, 12], the possibility of human control of weather seemed imminent. Claims and speculation con- cerning the degree of possible weather control and the probable amount of artificially induced precipitation were rife, and meteorological opinion ranged from the one extreme "of academic value only" to the other "of great economic and military ; The more favorable claims were supported in part by a few in- completely documented single experiments conducted in 1946 and 1947. These claims excited the interest of the public and stimulated demands for immediate weather control, drought relief, and storm diversion and dissipation, even though at the time there was no definite objective evidence that these were possible. Alfred Wegener [15] was the first to suggest that the coexistence of ice and water in supercooled clouds led to colloidal instability resulting in rapid growth of ice particles. The possibility of modifying and producing rain from supercooled clouds by adding sublimation nuclei was foreseen by Bergeron [1, 2] and Findeisen [8]. Until 1946, however, no method was known of pro- ducing the necessary ice-crystal nuclei artificially.' Ear- lier experiments by Veraart [13] in Holland in 1930 in which he dropped solid carbon dioxide, among other things, into supercooled clouds must have produced such nuclei, although Veraart at that time did not recognize this possibility. He was credited with produc- ing slight amounts of rain on several occasions. How- ever, because of his sweeping claims, even his positive results were discredited. Not until Schaefer and Lan
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