Joint

Weather Modification Association Annual Meeting &

American Meteorological Society
17th Conference on
Planned & Inadvertent Weather Modification

April 21-25, 2008 in the Denver/Boulder area

The 17^th Conference on Planned and Inadvertent Weather Modification, cosponsored by the American Meteorological Society and the Weather Modification Association, and organized by the AMS Committee on Planned and Inadvertent Weather Modification, will be held April 21-25, 2008 in Westminster, Colorado (between Boulder and Denver).  Preliminary programs, registration, hotel, and general information will be posted shortly on the AMS and WMA websites (www.ametsoc.org, www.weathermodification.org, resp.). The Conference will run for approximately 4-1/2 days.  In addition to invited keynote speakers, there will be a joint AMS/WMA banquet, a panel discussion, and first-ever joint sessions with the AMS Committee on Hydrology and the AMS Board on Societal Impacts.

Since the last AMS Conference was held in January, 2005, there have been exciting new developments in the science and technology of planned weather modification, including seeding technology and evaluation, as well as the impacts of humans and attendant pollution on weather. There is renewed research interest on possible new and novel approaches to severe storm mitigation, including hurricanes.  In addition to the recent NRC/NAS report on Critical Issues in Weather Modification Research, there has been introduced in both the US Senate and House legislation that, if passed, would establish a mechanism and funding for carrying out the key recommendations for a coordinated national research program in the Academy Report.

Papers for this joint, interdisciplinary conference are solicited on all aspects of planned and inadvertent weather modification. Special and/or joint sessions will be organized on purposeful weather modification during both operational and experimental programs, including updates from the field on promising technologies and evaluation methods.  Special and/or joint sessions on inadvertent weather modification will focus on urban and pollution effects on fog, clouds, precipitation, runoff and lightning. We especially welcome submitted papers from our colleagues in hydrology, social sciences, economists, engineering, atmospheric sciences, and regional climate change. Other specific topic areas for the conference include, but are not limited to:

n      hydrological applications to weather modification projects and evaluation

n       societal costs/benefits from purposeful and inadvertent weather modification, including toxicity and extra-area effects;

n       recent developments in understanding natural cloud processes and aerosol-cloud interactions, and how they might be modified;

n      development and refinement of conceptual models, including those for precipitation and severe storms;

n      application of numerical models like the WRF numerical model to planned and inadvertent weather modification topics;

n      updates on continuing operational weather modification programs;

n      cloud seeding technology, including new agents and production methodology;

n       physical evidence on the effects of weather modification programs, including areal and hydrology aspects, pollution and biomass-burning effects on cloud microphysical parameters and processes;

n       societal and economic effects of human-induced weather and climate impacts. 

The Conference will address these and other issues through a series of invited and solicited presentations, posters and panel discussions dealing with the scientific results of past and present operational and research programs. Depending on paper submissions, there may be a poster session, but in any case, high-quality posters are encouraged for submission, and a special viewing area will be provided for posters.

Abstract Submission Deadline Extended to December 10, 2007.

Please submit your abstract electronically via the Web by December 3, 2007 (refer to the AMS Web page at www.ametsoc.org for instructions). An abstract fee of $90 (payable by credit card or purchase order) is charged at the time of submission (refundable only if abstract is not accepted). This will include the cost of the abstract submission, extended abstract submission, and recording of the presentation. This will all be linked from the Web, no CD-ROM will be produced.  Authors of accepted presentations will be notified (via email) by January 15, 2007.  All extended abstracts are to be submitted electronically and will be available online via the Web. Instructions for formatting extended abstracts for the Preprint CD-ROM will be posted on the AMS Website. Manuscripts (up to 3MB) must be submitted electronically by April 14, 2008 to AMS.

For additional information, please contact the program chairpersons Joe Golden, GSD/ESRL/NOAA, 325 Broadway St, Boulder, CO 80305 (tel: 303-497-6098, email: Joe.Golden@noaa.gov); Don Griffith, No. American Weather Consultants (email: dgriffith@nawcinc.com); Duncan Axisa,  Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (email: duncan.axisa@gmail.com).