Summary
Description is made of a non-randomized experiment carried out with the aim of assessing the hail-suppressing effects of some newly-developed, giant condensation and ice-forming nuclei. A further aim consisted in testing, by those means, the practical feasibility of performing a hail-suppression operation by the use of ground-based generators alone. The operational area chosen was the Italian Province of Asti whose extensive vineyards, and regularly-recurring hailstorms, were found to meet the prerequisites of an excellent hailgauge, situated under a reliable hail generator. The project lasted for three consecutive summer periods covering the 153-day intervals between May and September 1969–1971 incl., during which 43.7 tons of nucleator material were dispersed into advancing convective cells.Continuous-historical computations indicated significant reductions of losses to the vineyards of Asti, whilemulti-control-target computations yielded a 99.9% probability of success with 99% confidence limits situated between 51% and 85% of the prospected losses. The average savings were of about 76% of vineyard values, with a corresponding benefit-to-cost ratio of 62, covering manpower, material and communications usedduring those fifteen months.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. C. Montefinale, G. L. Petriconi andH. M. Papee,A biennial systematic test of some newly-developed cloud-seeding nucleants, under orographic conditions, Pageoph83 (1970), 182.
A. C. Montefinale andH. M. Papee,Preliminary tests on large-scale suppression of warm fog by means of giant monodisperse particulates. Part I. The first Ghedi-Monte Orfano experiment, PAGEOPH83 (1970), 167.
A. C. Montefinale, G. L. Petriconi, E. G. Gori andH. M. Papee,Preliminary tests on large-scale suppression of warm fog by means of giant monodisperse particulates. Part II. An extensive systematic experiment in the Ghedi-Monte Orfano area, Pageoph83 (1970), 173.
A. C. Montefinale, T. Montefinale andH. M. Papee,Recent advances in the chemistry and properties of atmospheric nucleants: a review, Pageoph91 (1971), 171.
E. G. Gori, G. Musso andH. M. Papee,On the hailstorms of Asti Province. Parts I–VII, Geofis. e Meteorol.20 (1971), 21–53.
E. G. Gori, A. C. Montefinale, G. L. Petriconi, T. Montefinale andH. M. Papee,On the hailstorms of Asti Province. Part VIII. The prerequisites for a local project of hail suppression, Geofis. e Meteorol.20 (1971), 115.
A. C. Montefinale, E. G. Gori andH. M. Papee,An evaporator of iodine for purposes of weather control, Pageoph91 (1971), 211.
P. W. Summers andA. H. Paul,Some climatological characteristics of hailfall in Central Alberta, Alberta Hail Studies; Stormy Weather Group Sci. Rept. MW. 57. (Mc. Gill University, Montréal, 17, 1967).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gori, E.G., Petriconi, G.L., Montefinale, A.C. et al. Project ‘climatite’. PAGEOPH 99, 230–250 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00875280
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00875280