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AIR WAR COLLEGE

AIR UNIVERSITY

Weather Modification: The Ultimate Weapon?

Accesion For
NTIS CRA&W
DTIC TAB
byUnannounced 0
94-25269
ll8,..........IH~
lllliillllil Justification
...
Dist, ibution I
Availability Codes
Angts Waft Avail andlor
Lieutenant-Coloncl, Canadian Air Force Dist Special

A RESEARCH REPORT SUBMrITED TO THE FACULTY

IN(

FULFILLMENT OF THE CURRICULUM ( " -

REQUIREMENT 04`1

Advisor: Dr. Armin Ludwig '

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, ALABAMA

April 1993
"94'8' '10• 054
Everybody talks about the weather ...
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All

but nobody does anything about it

--Mark Twain
 liboducthm

Weather modification. The very words conjure up an Image of quackery, chdatanism

and trickery. Attempts to control or alter the weather are almost as old as civilization itself,

ranging from the incantations of ancient priests, through the famous rain dances of North

American Indians, to modern computer-supported experimentation and modeling. Yet, in

spite of this long history, the credibility of these techniques has always remained rather low,

due principally to the inherent problem of verifying results. However, while many obstacles

remain to be overcome, considerable technological and scientific progress in weather

modification has been made since the Second World War, to the point where it deserves

serious consideration, especially in light of the potentially catastrophic consequences of its

use.

Any examination of weather modification requires a careful definition of the subject

since it is conceivably such a far-reaching technology that it tends to transcend many

traditional scientific boundaries. For instance, there is the issue of intent It has become

increasingly obvious that mankind's activities have begun to significantly alter the ecological

balance of the Earth's environment Such phenomena as acid rain, the controversial

"greenhouse effect,' the depletion of the ozone layer, the destruction of tropical rain forests

and desertification have come to the forefront of national and international environmental

agenda. While there can be no doubt about the seriousness of these problems, they are not

the result of deliberate attempts to alter the environment Rather, they are undesirable

-1-
secondary effects from a variety of human acivities and thus cannot be considered as

legitimate weather modification techniques.

A distinction also needs to be made between weather modification and the larger

question of environmental modification. Weather modification is essentially any ailficially

produced change in the composition, behavior, or dynamics of the nmeosphere.1

Environmental modification does include weather modification, but it also goes on to

encompass some rather strange and horrific ideas. Among others, these include earthquake

tr1gering, tsunami (tidal wave) generation, and Icecap melting. There has even been a truly

bizarre proposal to alter the electrical properties of the atmosphere over a region In order to

interfere with the functioning of the human brain and thereby drive the affected population

insane.2 Many of these concepts are far-fetched, some are interesting, but none of them

belong in any serious discussion of weather modification.

Similarly, environmental terrorism, such as Saddam Hussein's actions in Kuwait during

the Gulf War, cannot be viewed as a legitimate form of weather modification. While the Iraqi

actions did have serious climatological effects, it is not at all dear that these effects constituted

the main objective, so there is a question of intent Furthermore, the effects were more in

the category of destructive pollution than environmental modification, per se.

Even within the topic of true weather modification, there is a considerable diversity

of issues, not the least of which is the dichotomy formed by military and civilian interests.

Civilan programs are predominately agriculturally-oriented, while the military tends to be

more interested In using weather for hostile purposes. While each group may use similar

techniques and suffer the same problems of practicality and effect, the muiltary purposes raise

-2-
some thorny ethical questions which must also be considered.

With the foregoing In mind, the focus of this paper will be on the dexberd. use of

weaher modljcadon techniques by the mlikty. The discussion will concentrate on the

practicality and morality of weather warfare, with the aim of demonstrating that military

weather modification may be technically feasible, but some of its forms may be difficult to

justify on grounds of practicality and ethics.

The Potential

The first question that must be answered in examining the military use of weather

modification is whether such techniques have any military utility. This question is very easily

answered in the affirmative. Even the local manipulation of smaller weather systems holds

great promise for the disruption of an enemy's operations at critical jundures. Perhaps the

"fog of war" could someday become more than just a descriptive allusion to battlefield

confusion.

Indeed, when one considers the crucial role that weather has played in many battles,

it is dear that the ability to modify the weather would provide a tremendous advantage to

any force possessing even a rudimentary capability. Examples of the weather influencing the

outcome of a battle range from Washington's crossing of the Dllaware under cover of a

snowstorm, to the winter snows halting both Napoleon's and Hitler's invasions of Russia.

The air campaign of the recent Gulf War was also hampered in its early days by an

unexpected and unusual amount of foul weather.

-3-
p

Reflecting on the importance of weather to the Normandy invasion of World War II,

General Eisenhower wroth.

it was a tense period made cven worse by the fad that the one thing that
could give us this disastrous set back was entirely outside our control. Some soldier
once said: 'The weather Is always neutral.' Nothing could be more untrue. Bad
weather is obviously the enemy of the side that wants to launch projects requiring
good weather, or the side possessing the greatest assets such as strong air forces
which depend on good weather for effective operations. Ifreally bad weather should
endure permanently, the Nazis would need nothing else to defend the Normandy
coastO

Even with the great advances in warfighting technology since those days, the weather

remains a key component of success, especially for air power. The aid that bad weather

might have provided the Nazis could also have been invaluable to Saddam Hussein in the

Gulf War. Many of the weapons that were so effective at devastating the military

infrastructure of Iraq depended on visual acquisition. Laser designators, electro-optical

"smart" bombs, and TOW missiles are all subject to considerable operational degradation due

to obscurations and restrictions to visibility.4 This military potential of weather modification

was even explicitly recognized in 1957, when the President's Advisory Committee on

Weather Control, which included such scientific luminaries as Edward Teller, issued a report

in which they warned that weather control could become a more important weapon than the

atomic bomb.5

As one probes deeper into this question of weather modification for military purposes,

it becomes evident that the techniques and methods fail into two broad categories of

meteorological interventions: defensive techniques and offensive techniques. Another w.-y

to look at it would be to dassify the techniques as involving either the suppression or the

intensification of adverse weather.

-4-
 More specifically, suppression weathc' modification is the use of palliative techniques

in order to protect facilities and equipment fiom damage, as well as to facilitate operations

that would otherwise be constrained by the weather. Examples of this type of activity indude

the dissipation of fog or cloud, the suppression of hail and lightning, and the attenuation of

severe storms.

In contrast, offensive weather modification is the deliberate intensification or alteration

of weather systems in order to disrupt the enemy's operations and destroy or damage his

facilities or equipment This is the use of weather as a weapon, which can Include fog

generation, storm Intensification and guidance, precipitation augmentation and hail

generation. It essentially involves the stimulation of latent instabilities in the weather system

in order to achieve a desired larger effect 6 This is an important point because the creation

of significant weather phenomena from scratch is probably beyond human means. According

to Edward Lorenz, a professor of meteorolrgy at MIT, legitimate weather creation would

require that the effects exceed natural variations. For instance, if the natural variation in

summertime temperatures in a region is half a degree, you would have to do something that

would cause more than half a degree change over a sizeable region. This would require the

expenditure of an enormous amount of energy-more than that contained in several H-bomb

explosions." Unfortunately, these practical difficulties with weather creation are often falsely

ascribed to weather modijco•lon, although the circumstances are entirely different.

Thus, there can be little doubt that weather modification has tremendous military

potential. However, if that potential is to be realized, the techniques and technologies must

be practical. In order to properly assess this question of feasibility, it is necessary to begin

-5-
with the technological history of weather mndification.

The History

Weather modification has a long history, though much of it is decidedly unscienlficl

The Bible cites the case of Joshua who made the sun 'stand sil at the battle of Glboa so

that he could finish destroying the enemy before dark.8 In the April 5, 1839 issue of the

National Gaette and Literary Register of Philadelphia, James P. Espey dalmed that Iflarge

fires were lit, the resulting updrafts would create cumulus douds and bring rain.' He

proposed that a string of small timber lots along the western frontier from the Great Lakes

to the Gulf of Mexico be set ablaze once a week. Espey daimed that this would result in

a line of rain showers which would then travel eastward to the Atlantic."'

Another curious episode in the history of weather modification occurred at the end

of the Civil War when Edward Powers, a civil engineer, published a book entitled War and

the Weather, in which he postulated that the noise of battle had generated rainstorms. In

1890, Congress appropriated nine thousand dollars to test this theory. A series of massive

nighttime explosions were detonated in Texas in the summer of 1891, but the results were

inconclusive. The researchers, though, were undaunted and decided to repeat the

experiment at Fort Myer, Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington D.C. This was a

spectacularly bad choice of locale for the noisy explosions in the middle of the night

provoked a storm of protest, but little rain. The project was subsequently quietly cancelled."

Other famous weather experimenters induded an American doctor named Leon

-6-
Chaffee, who flew above clouds in 1924 in order to bombard them with shovelfuls of sand.

He daimed that his technique caused the douds to disappear."2 Realistically, though, serious

and scientific investigation of weather modification dates from the end of World War IL

In 1946, Dr. Irving Langmuir and his laboratory assistant, Vincent J. Schaefer,

discovered that dry ice fragments could induce nudeation in douds of supercooled water

droplets. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Bernard Vonnegut, working independently in the General

Electric laboratories, discovered that silver iodide partides were even more effective at

generating nudeation; the particles were surmised to be much more efficient nudei than

those occurring naturally.13 This was an important milestone In the history of weather

modification for

without this artificial nudeation, thermodynamically unstable conditions may

be checkmated by colloidal stability, and, therefore, pass on or dissipate without
having produced the weather benefits of which they are capable; or they may
become intensified until the ultimate spontaneous outbreak is vastly harmful.14

Vonnegut initially had no thought of using his discovery outside the laboratory, but the

publicity surrounding his discovery and the Langmuir/Schaefer efforts soon led to a rapid

growth In research projects.

The first major study which resulted from this increased interest was the U.S.

government-sponsored Project Cirrus which began in 1947. It concentrated mainly on cloud

seeding in order to induce precipitation, but notable experiments involving hurricane seeding

were also undertaken. This led to some rather serious controversy, as in the following case:

on October 13 [19471 a flight was made into the vicinity of a hurricane located
about 350 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida. One of the spiral rain bands.., was
seeded. Project Cirrus flight personnel reported from visual observations that there
was a pronounced modification of the cloud deck after seeding. Shortly after the
seeding, the hurricane, which had been travelling northeastward, changed its course

-7-
 and headed almost straight westward to strike the coast of South Carolina and
Georgia. There was much speculation concerning the possibility that the seeding was
15
responsible for changing the path of the hurricane.

This controversy was pivotal for weather modification research because it demonstrated that

the possible legal consequences arising from the deliberate alteration of such damaging

storms meant that litle future experimentation could be carried out on any storms which had

the potential to reach land. This was typical of the difficulties that were to plague weather

modification research.

Project Cirrus continued on Into the 1960s with a mixed record of successes and

failures. As with all weather modification experiments, it soon became apparent that it was

very difficult to verify the results of the seeding. In other words, did the precipitation occur

because of seeding or in spite of it? Several studies were made of the project results, with

the most thorough probably being that sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

during the period 1968 to 1973. They concluded that

in certain meteorological situations not completely understood, seeding can

increase precipitation from 10 to 30 per cent over what would have been expected.
Hence, in the longest randomized doud-seeding research project in the United States
involving cold orographic winter clouds, it has been demonstrated that precipitation
can be increased by substantial amounts and on a determinant basis.16

However, the most significant result of the project was the increased scientific

legitimacy that it furnished to weather modification. This gave rise to a whole series of

weather modification experiments, as well as spawning a commercial doud seeding industry.

One of these new areas of research involved the suppression of hail; various

experiments in this field were subsequently undertaken in many larger agricultural countries

of the world, including Canada and the U.S.S.R. The basic technique consisted of saturating

-8-
I S

hail-forming clouds with a super-abundance of ice crystal nuclei so that the available water

would be used up, thereby inhibiting the growth of hallstones by riming. The Soviet Union

claimed an incredible 70 to 80 percent reduction in hail damage in some areas due to these

techniques, but there was considerable skepticism elsewhere concerning the statistical validity

of their results.' 7

In the United States, Project Hallswath, conducted in 1966 near Rapid City, South

Dakota also reduced hail damage but most scientists did not view the results as conclusive.18

Other large projects In the U.S., Canada, and South Africa obtained an estimated 20 to 50

percent reduction in hail damage, although their findings were also controversial."9

Fog dissipation was another area which received considerable attention, primarily in

support of airfield activities. In fact, there had been previous attempts to dear fog from

runways during the Battle of Britain with ground-based thermal systems which were installed

at 15 RAF aerodromes. These FIDO systems (Fog, Intensive, Dispersal Of) consisted of a

series of pipes along the runways through which aviation fuel was pumped and ignited as it

escaped through small holes. Despite some technical problems, the FIDO system was

credited with assisting the landings of over 2,500 aircraft by the end of the war.20

After the war, most of the fog research concentrated on two main areas-the

dissipation of cold fog using hygroscopic seeding techniques and the dispersion of warm fog

through artificial warming. Several projects were funded by the U.S. military; most of the'i

succeeded in dispersing fog to some degree. The most difficult problems remained the cost

of such systems, as well as the dispersion of advection fog which Is associated with a moving

airmass and thus tends to fill any deared a-rea with more fog.

-9-
 One of the more significant warm fog projects was the installation of the TurboclaIr

system at Orly airport near Paris in 1970. This system consisted of a series of jet engines

installed in underground chambers along the upwind side of the runway. Tests showed that

the system could improve the visibility in the approach and touchdown portions of the

runway to at least the minimums required for operations.2'

In the case of supercooled fog, several experiments proved that dry ice seeding can

be a cheap and effective dissipation technique. Thirteen American commercial airports were

using It on an operation basis in 1973.' The USAF iso conducted successful cold fog

dispersion trials with a ground-based liquid propane dispensing system.23

Another project which aimed to alter the weather began in 1952 under the

sponsorship of the U.S. Forestry Service. This was Project Skfvre which sought to prevent

lightning from igniting forest fires. The basic principle was to try to cause artificial corona

discharges between numerous tiny conductors introduced into the storm and thereby

harmlessly dissipate its electrical potential.' 4 Various agents were used, including silver

iodide, dry ice crystals, and chaff. In comparing the results from 10 storms that were seeded

against a control group of 18 unseeded storms, there appeared to be a 75 percent reduction

in lightning strikes in the modified storms.2 This was judged to be statistically significant

although the experiments were not strictly randomized.

Space does not permit a discussion of many of the numerous other experiments in

the history of weather modification, but one project stands out as probably the most famous

undertaking and certainly the most german•e to this paper. This was the doud seeding

operations carried out by the U.S. military c",er Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1972 with the

-10-
•s . a

objective of inhibiting the logistical operations of the North Vietnamese along the Ho Chi

Minh Trail. The operation came to be known by a variety of codenames: Popeye,

Intermediary, Compatiot, and Mdorpool. It was highly dassified at the time and known
only to the President, a few high-ranking military officers, and the assigned aircrew. We had

come a long way since Mark Twain- something was being done about the weather, but

nobody was talking about it

Most of the precipitation enhancement missions were flown out of Udorn, Thailand

with WC-130s and RF-4Cs at the freezing level, at approximately 18,000 feel A total of

2,602 sorties were flown over the five year span of the operation and 47,409 canisters of

seeding agents were dispersed into douds.W

When the details of this operation began to surface in the early 1970s, it not only

caused a political storm but also provoked considerable controversy as to the efficacy of the

program. Much of the criticism was based on the classic weather modification problem:

verification of results. However, Defense Intelligence Agency officials estimated that rainfall

had been increased up to 30 percent over certain areas, although their findings were likely ,V..

somewhat biased.' It is also undear whether the rain had any appreciable effect on the

movement of enemy supplies. Nonetheless, in 1972, North Vietnam experienced a series of "

torrential rainstorms that continued well into the normal dry season. Roads and dikes were

washed away and an estimated 10 percent of the rice crop was destroyed.

The USAF has also carried out several precipitation enhancement projects for

beneficial purposes, with the largest operation being Project Gromet i In the Philippines in

1969. Other American military drought mitigation operations have been conducted in

-11-
Panama, Portugal and Okinawa.26

It is therefore evident that weather modification has a long and colorful history, but

considerable doubts remain as to its effediveness. Still, although the technology is in its

infancy, enough legitimate research has been accomplished to allow some reasonable

speculation on the feasibility of weather modification for military purposes.

The Feasibility

Research itself Is one of the biggest problems associated with the provision of a

definitive judgement on the effectiveness of weather modification. Early experiments were

characterized by a haphazard approach to statistical analysis which tended to reduce both

the internal and external validity of their findings. The basic problem has always been

whether the observed changes in the weather were due to an intentional intervention or

merely the result of natural luctuations.29

Much of this confusion can be traced to an imperfect understanding of the weather

processes involved. However, this problem is not insurmountable. Statistical methods

designed to compensate for some of these difficul.'es have been developed in conjunction

with the design and analysis of comparative experiments in biological and agriculturwI

research in which large and only partially controllable variability is present3O Weather

modification experiments have also benefitted from increasing knowledge of the physical

properties of douds and their natural variability. 31 Moreover, recent progress in computer

technology has improved the computation-l resolution of numerical atmospheric models

-12-
thereby enhancing their usefulness for weather modification research.32 For instance, a very

active weather modification program in North Dakota, in operation since 1961, has used

tracer chemicals with new high-speed analyzers to track the progress of silver iodide seeding

in a cloud. The results have provided some interesting Insights into which are the best douds

to seed, as well as when and where to do the seeding.33

Another experiment in Texas, headed by doud physicist W'llam Woodley, used

sophisticated computer programs which analyzed weather radar imagery in order to provide

definitive evidence of the effects of seedhig. His results indicated that seeded clouds

produced more than twice as much rain as their unseeded counterparts 3 4 Still, in spite of

this impressive progress in weather modification research, some fundamenta climatic

processes remain poorly understood, such as the transfer of heat to and from the oceans and

how that heat is moved to different parts of the globe by ocean airrents.-'

Another problem, perhaps even more intractable than the operational validity of these

experiments, is the contentious issue of legal liability. Weather modification experiments can

be developed in the laboratory and simulated to some extent on computers, but, in the end,

they must be attempted in the atmosphere. The problem then arises of unintentional civil

damage from weather systems which had been subject to modification experiments, whether

or not those efforts were effective. Imagine, for instance, if it was revealed that a government

agency had been experimenting with Hurricane Andrew before it struck the Florida coast in

1992. Any government agency would have a tough time surviving a controversy of that

magnitude, especially given the possibility of billions of dollars In compensatory and punitive

damage awards.

-13-
 A less hypothetical example occurred in 1972 in Rapid City, South Dakota. Projec

Skywatch, under the sponsorship of the Bureau of the Interior, seeded some douds north of

the city with over 500 pounds of nudeating salt. A tremendous storm followed which caused

a flash flood that burst the Canyon Lake Dam. The result was 238 people dead and

hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.? Subsequent investigations established that th,

seeding was not responsible for the specific storm that caused the flood. Public opinion polls

also showed that the majority of the town's inhabitants did not blame the weather researchers

for the disaster.' Still, such events do raise some interesting problems. The pradical result

has been a severe linitation on weather modification research where there is any likelihood

of damage to property or personal injuries; this has virtually eliminated some types of

experiments, such as hurricane modification.

These examples of projects gone awry also raise some profound questions as to the

feasibility of offensive weather modification, for if such unforeseen consequences occur during

relatively limited experiments, there is a significant possibility that a wider use of weather

modification on the battlefield could result in significant fratricidal damage. The storm you

send to strike your enemy may instead pounce on you. Of course, weather modification is

still an emerging technology; presumably, as progress is made, such risks would diminish,

but offensive weather modification will likely always remain a high-stakes wager. The payoffs

can be enormous but so can the losses.

On the other hand, localized suppression modification-fog and doud dissipation, hail

suppression, and other such ameliorative techniques-offers greater technological promise and

less legal risk. There is little potential for a successful lawsuit challenging the dearing of a

-14-
heavy fog, or the dissipation of a severe hailstorm. Furthermore, although suppression

techniques are not as spectacular as the more overtly hostile ofensive weather modication,

the results can be important for the military, especially in an area like Western Europe which

is plagued by bad weather and poor visibility.

In general, therefore, it must be conduded that the military feasibility of offensive

weather modification is limited. The present technology is uncertain, research is dWfA and

the results can be unpredictable to the point where the risk outweighs the possible gain. In

contrast, the more defensively-oriented suppression techniques have a reasonably sound

technological base, good potential for further research, and a reasonably high payoff.

Nevertheless, there remains a question of ethics and morality in any use of weather

modification, especially by the mlitary. Does the military have the right to interfere with

complex, poorly-understood weather systems in the name of national security?

The Ethics

The use of weather as a weapon by the military raises many questions that, at best,

can only be partially answered. In many ways, offensive weather modification is a

technology in which man's reach often exceeds his grasp. The capability to modify large and

very powerful weather systems now exists, although the extent and effectiveness are

debatable. More certain is the fact that the effects of human intervention are not well

understood. Offensive weather modification Is a very unpredictable weapon which,

individually or in combination with natural phenomena, could cause terrible damage to the

-15-
world ecosystem through unforeseen and uncontrollable reactions. Even In the name of

national security, it is very difficult to justify such a weapon.

Offensive weather modification poses another thorny ethical problem in that it would

be difficuflt to determine responsibility for changes in the weather. Weather Is generally

assumed to result from natural forces; thus, offensive weather modification is a technology

which lends itself to covert action, especially in the case of long-term climate modfication

which could be used to economically drain an enemy. Such actions could remain unknown

to the general citizenry of both the victim and the aggressor nations. For example, one

scientist has proposed fertilizing the Antarctic Ocean with Iron In order to encourage algae

growth which would draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and result in global

cooling.38 While the scientific rigor of this particular theory may be debatable, it does serve

to illustrate the potential for a covert climate modification proje*, with fearful consequences

for which it would be difficult to assign blame.

Consequently, in spite of the tremendous military utility of offensive weather

modification, its use must be viewed as morally repugnant This does not mean that all

research into the offensive use of weather modification should cease for there are a number

of governments in the world who do not feel constrained by conventional morality. At the

very least, one should have the means to detect attempts to modify the weather, and,/L

hopefully, to counter the effects. In fact, during the early 1970s, Project Nile Blue of the U.S.

Defense Advanced Research Project Agency had this weather modification detection mission

as Its primary objective.'

This leads to an area of military weather modification which is much easier to justify,-

-16-
local suppression modification. As mentioned earlier, the technology is more predictable and

since it seeks only to alleviate some of the destructive aspects of weather, It is much less

controversial. The civilian applications of this technology are simiarly beneficial and could

be used as further justification for continued research.

Based on the foregoing discussion, it seems reasonable to conclude that offensive

weather modification is neither pradical nor very ethical as a military weapon; it is also

apparent that suppression modification has much better potential. l-istony, though, has often

shown that If a new military technology is developed, especially one with the great

possibilities of offensive weather modification, it will eventually be used unless it Is proscribed

by effective international agreements.

The Trmflaes

Concern about the possible detrimental effects of offensive weather modification began

to grow in the 1960s, coincident with the increase in technological sophistication. Much of

this concern was restricted to the scientific and environmentalist communities until 1972,

when Senator aaibome Pell and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee began to

investigate the precipitation augmentation acttes of the American military forces in

Vietnam.

When the Vietnam weather modification operation was finally revealed to the public

in 1974, the resulting controversy led to a series of hearings in the U.S. Senate. Shortly

thereafter, the North Atlantic Assembly adopted a proposal that recommended that NATO

-17-
prohibit the use of environmental modification, 'except for peaceful purposes and for the

betterment of mankind, and for purposes which have no effect on the ecological balance."'4

In the United Nations, the Soviet Union proposed a resolution in 1974, later adopted by the

General Assembly In 1977, to prohibit hostile use of environmental modification techniques.

The resulting 'Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of

Environmental Modification Techniques! committed the signatories to refrain from any

military or other hostile use of weather modification which could result in widespread, long-

lasting or severe effects.4'

Unfortunately, although these conventions represented significant progress, they

contained many loopholes, not the least of which was the fact that they were limited to

"widespread' effects, thereby allowing the tactical use of weather modification to escape the

ban." Similarly, the difficulties of verifying and enforcing such a ban soon became apparent.

In the case of the United Nations convention, suspected violations are referred to the Security

Council for investigation. While the recent end of the Cold War has engendered a new sense

of cooperation in the U.N., the fact remains that the veto power in the Security Council has

effectively emasculated this treaty in the case of any Great Power involvement'

After this Blurry of activity in the 1970s, international interest in this issue began to

wane and ltlWe progress has been made in recent years, although local objections to weather

modification programs in Canada and the United States has been growing along with general

concern for environmental degradation. In fact, even In regions where doud seeding has

been used for 25 years, there Is now an organized and vocal opposition."

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 The ubare

Prediding the future of weather modification is almost as difficuft as accurately

predicting tomorwds weather. U.S. research is continuing, albeit at a decidedly lower pace

than during the heyday of the immediate post-Second Wodd war era. The emphasis has

also shifted from overt experimentation on the atmosphere to efforts to produce a realistic

computer simulation that could be used for forecasting and expermentation. In the United

States, federal money for modification research has dropped from $25 million per year In

1981 to a few million per year.45 Worldwide, the trend is somewhat different, as the Wold

Meteorological Organization has estimated that In 1989 there were 118 active weather

modification programs in 32 countries, compared with 80 projects in 1983.4

In spite of these impressive figures, most of the active weather projecs in the world

(at least the ones of which we are aware) appear to be civilian. The world's military forces

do not seem to be very interested in pursuing the use of weather as a weapon, although that

could quickly change, especially given the vulnerability of some precision-guided munitions

to adverse weather. The often unstable leadership of the military forces of the Third Wodd

may also see opportunities In offensive weather warfare where most other nations would only

see disaster.

In contrast, there seems to be good potential in the military use of suppression

techniques to reduce vulnerabilities and facilitate operations, although many problems remain

to be solved. Consequently, this area will likely receive the bulk of serious attention.

Nevertheless, the conceivably calamitous effects of offensive weather modification militates

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against a complete abandonment of research in this field, if only to be able to detect hostile

meddling. Perhaps the best solution woult' be an international body, similar to the

International Atomic Energy Agency, which co- 'd provide the proper supervision, as well as

a registry for weather modification operatic is in order to reduce suspicion between

governments.4

At present, international interest in weý her modification treaties is relatively limited

compared to the heated debates of the 1970s, but the largely tacit agreements already in

place are far from complete and the issue could once again spring Into prominence If any

significant attempts to use weather modification in a hostile context are revealed. Moreover,

recent conferences, such as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, have focussed worldwide

attention on the deleterious environmental effects of routine human activities. Public opinion

has become highly sensitized to environmental issues, rendering it a dangerous area for

involvement by Western military forces, even if only for research purposes. Unfortunately,

there are many regimes in the world who do not feel similarly constrained.

Conclusion

Military weather modification is not a fantasy-it is a fact Both offensive and

suppression techniques have already been employed by military forces engaged in various

conlicts ranging from the Second World War to Vietnam. The success of these operations

is controversial, the ethics somewhat doubtful and the practicality Is questionable, but they

have still occurred.

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 Many of the doubts have been focussed on offensive weather modification wherein

the techniques are more unreliable and the results less predictable. With this limited

practicality, as weft as the ethical problems associated with hostile weather modification, it

does not seem to be a viable military weapon. Nonetheless, its potential is so enormous that

theoretical research must continue into offensive weather modification in order to understand

its effects if one should ever become its victim.

In marked contrast, however, the use of local suppression techniques to improve the

weather shows great technological promise and is much easier to justify. The elimination or

dissipation of fog, lightning, hall and other damaging phenomena would not only aid military

operations, but could also prove immensely beneficial to the civiian populace. Furthermore,

since these techniques are inherently defensive, there should be much less reluctance to share

the results of this research so that friendly nations can also beneft

Finally, the entire issue of deliberate environmental modification deserves greater

international attention than it has received in the recent past. The present treaties are

inadequate, poorly defined, and full of loopholes. Offensive weather modification for military

purposes should be banned in all forms, and strict limits should be placed on the military use

of suppression techniques.

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 Referen*ez

1. D.S. Halacy, The Weather Changers (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), p. 4 .
2. Gordon J.F. MacDonald, 'Geophysical Warfare: How to Wreck the Environment,'
in Unless Peace Comes, ed. by Nigel Calder (New York: Viking, 1968), p. 185.

3. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade In Europe (Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday,

1948), p. 239.
4. LCOl Leander Page, 'Weather Support to the Modern Army' (unpublished
student essay, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, 1982), p. 33.
5. William B. Meyer, "The Life and Times of U.S. Weather. What Can We Do
About It?' in American Heritage, Vol. 37 No. 4. (June/July 1986), p. 48.
6. Edith Brown Weiss, "Weather as a Weapon,* in Air, Water, Earth, Rre: The
Impact of the Military on World Environmental Order (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1972),
p. 5 1 .

"7. Tom Yulsman and Andrew C. Revk~n, 'Will We Ever Control The Weather?' in
Science Digest, Vol. 93 No. 10 (October, 1985), p. 97.

8. lbid., p. 51.

9. Horace R. Byers, 'H-isory of Weather Modification," in Weather and Climate

Modifcatlon, ed. by Wilmot N. Hess (New Yo!k: Wiley, 1974), p. 4 .
10. William B. Meyer, 'The Life and Tmnes of U.S. Weather: What Can We Do
About It?' in American Heritage, Vol. 37 No. 4. (June/July 1986), p. 40.
11. William B. Meyer, "The Life and Times of U.S. Weather: What Can We Dk,
About It?' in American Heritage, Vol. 37 No. 4. (June/July 1986), pp. 42-43..
12. Fitzhugh Green, A Change In the W ,her (New York: Norton, 1977), pp. 19-
20.
13. Byers, History, p. 13.
14. Vaughn C. Ball, "Shaping the La,, of Weather Control," in The Yale Law
Journal, Vol. 58 (January, 1949), p. 215.
15. Byers, History, p. 14.
16. Gordon J.F. MacDonald, 'Weather Modification as a Weapon," Technology
Review, November, 1975, p. 58.

-22-
 17. G.K. Sulavelidze, B.L Klzlriya, and V.V. Tsykunov, 'Pgress of Hal Suppression
Work in the USSR," in Weather and Climate Modlicarlon, ed. by Wilmot N. Hess (New
York: Wiley, 1974), p. 428.

18. Halacy, The Weather Changers, p. 134.

19. Georg Breuer, Weather Modicnaion: Prospectsand Problems, Trans. by Hans

Morth (Cambridge: University Press, 1980), p. 77.
20. Bernard A. Silverman and Alan L Weinstein, "Fog,' in Weather and Climate
Modl•catlon, ed. by Wilmot N. Hess (New York: Wiley, 1974), p. 378.

21. Ibid., p. 380.

22. Stanley A. Changnon, 'The Paradox of Planned Weather Modification,' in

Bulletin of the American MeteorologicalSociety, Vol. 56, No. 1 (January, 1975), p. 27.

23. Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, United States Senate.

Hon. Howard W. Cannon, Chairman, Weather Modl~jcatlon:Programs,Problems,Polcy and
Potential (Washington, D.C.:U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978), p. 93.

24. Halacy, The Weather Changers, p. 149.

25. U.S. Senate, Weather Modificalion, p. 100.

26. Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller, America's Weather Warriors 1814-1985
(Texas: A&M University Press, 1986), p. 230.

27. Ibid.

2 8. U.S. Senate, Weather Modication, p. 307.

29. Weiss, Weather as a Weapon, p. 52.

30. Glen W. Brier, "Design and Evaluation of Weather Modification Experiments."

in Weather and Climate ModI catlon, ed. by Wilmot N. Hess (New York: Wiley, 1974), p.
673.

31. Chagnon, Paradox, p. 28.

32. Joseph Smagorinsky, "Global Atmospheric Modeling and the Numerical

Simulation of Climate," in Weather and Climate ModlAcation, ed. by Wilmot N. Hess (New
York: Wiley, 1974), p. 673.

33. Kathryn Phillips, "Breaking the Storm," in Discover, Vol. 13 No. 5 (May 1992),
p. 65.

-23-
14

34. Ibid., p. 69.

35. Tom Yulsman and Andrew C. Revkin, 'W We Ever Control The Weather?' in
Science Digest, Vol. 93 No. 10 (October, 1985), p. 97.

3 6. Green, A Change in the Weather, p. 183.

37. Breuer, Weather Modificafion: Prospects and Problems, p. 116.

38. Robert Kunzlg, "Earth on Ice,' in Discover, Vol. 12 No. 4 (ApIl 1991), p. 55.

39. Ibid., p. 145.

40. U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign relations, Eighteenth Meeting of the North
Atlantic Assembly: Report of the U.S. Delegation (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1973), p. 10.

41. U.S. Department of State, The DepadmentofState Bulletin, Volume LXXVI, No.
1981 (June 13, 1977), p. 633.
42. Josef Goldblat, 'The Prohibition of Environmental Warfare," Amblo, Vol. 4, No.
5-6, 1975, p. 190.

43. U.S. Senate, Weather Modlfication, p. 432.

44. D. Ray Booker, "The Future of Weather Modification,' in Weather Modji ca1or"
Technology and Law, ed. by R.J. Davis and LO. Grant (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press,
1978), p. 39.

45. Phillips, "Breaking the Storm,' p. 66.

46. Ibid., p. 69.

47. Weiss, Weather as a Weapon, p. 57.

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