NOAA 17-4 Initial Report on Weather Modification Activities

Complete in accordance with instructions on reverse and forward copy:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
1315 East-West Highway SSMC-3 Room 11554
Silver Spring, MD 20910

TO:

Form Approved: OMB No. 0648-0025 Expires 1/31/2018
NOAA FORM 17-4
(4-81)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
NAT’L OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADM.

INITIAL REPORT ON WEATHER MODIFICATION
ACTIVITIES (P.L. 205, 92ND. CONGRESS)

1. PROJECT OR ACTIVITY DESIGNATION, IF ANY

2. DATES OF PROJECT

a. DATE FIRST ACTUAL WEATHER MODIFICATION
ACTIVITY IS TO BE UNDERTAKEN

3. PURPOSE OF PROJECT OR ACTIVITY

b. EXPECTED TERMINATION DATE OF WEATHER
MODIFICATION ACTIVITIES
4. (a) SPONSOR

4. (b) OPERATOR

NAME

NAME

AFFILIATION

PHONE NUMBER

STREET ADDRESS

AFFILIATION

PHONE NUMBER

STREET ADDRESS

CITY

STATE

ZIP CODE

CITY

STATE

ZIP CODE

5. TARGET AND CONTROL AREAS (See Instructions)
TARGET AREA

CONTROL AREA

LOCATION

SIZE OF AREA
.

LOCATION

SIZE OF AREA

SQ.MI

SQ.MI.

6. DESCRIPTION OF WEATHER MODIFICATION APPARATUS, MODIFICATION AGENTS AND THEIR DISPERSAL RATES, THE
TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED, ETC. (See Instructions)

7. LOG BOOKS: Enter name, affiliation, address, and telephone number of responsible individual from whom log books or
other records may be obtained.

THIS REPORT IS REQUIRED BY PUBLIC LAW 92-205; 85 STAT 735; 15

NAME

U.S.C. 330b. KNOWING AND WILLFUL VIOLATION OF ANY RULE
AFFILIATION

PHONE NUMBER

ADOPTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF SECTION 2 OF PUBLIC LAW 92205 SHALL SUBJECT THE PERSON VIOLATING SUCH RULE TO A FINE OF

STREET ADDRESS

NOT MORE THAN $10,000, UPON CONVICTION THEREOF.

CITY

STATE

ZIP CODE

8. SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
YES

NO

Has an Environmental Impact Statement, Federal or State been filed? If yes, please furnish a copy as applicable.

YES

NO

Have provisions been made to acquire the latest forecasts, advisories, warnings, etc. of the National Weather
Service, Forest Service, or others when issued prior to and during operations? If yes, please specify on a separate
sheet.

YES

NO

Have any safety procedures (operational constraints, provisions for suspension of operations, monitoring
methods, etc.) and any environmental guidelines (related to the possible effects of the operations) been
included in the operational plans? If yes, please furnish copies or a description of the specific procedures and
guidelines.

9. OPTIONAL REMARKS (See Instructions. Use Separate Sheet.)
CERTIFICATION: I certify that the above statements are true, complete and correct to the

NAME

best of my knowledge and belief.
AFFILIATION

SIGNATURE

STREET ADDRESS

OFFICIAL TITLE

CITY

Reset

STATE

ZIP CODE

DATE

PHONE NUMBER

INSTRUCTIONS FOR INITIAL REPORT
ON WEATHER MODIFICATION ACTIVITIES
One completed copy of this form is to be received 10 days* or more prior to actual modification activities.
A NOAA file number will be assigned by the Administrator after receipt of the initial report for each
project or activity.
A supplemental report in a letter form referring to the appropriate NOAA file number must be made to the
Administrator if the “Initial Report” is found to contain any material inaccuracies, misstatements, and
omissions, or if there are changes in plans for the project or activity.
*For exceptions, see Sections 908.4(b) and (c), Part 908 of Title 15, Code of Federal Regulations.

Item 1.

Enter designation, if any, used by operator for the project or activity.

Item 2.

Enter: (a) Date first actual weather modification activity is to be undertaken;
(b) Date on which final weather modification activity is expected to occur.

Item 3.

Enter the purpose of the project or activity: e.g., rainfall increase, hail suppression, cold fog
dispersal, etc.

Item 4.

Enter: (a) Name, phone number, affiliation, and address of the primary person for whom
the project is to be performed (sponsor).
(b) Name, phone number , affiliation, and address of the person primarily
responsible for carrying out the project (operator).

Item 5.

A map should be attached showing size and location of target area, control area, coded
number and location of each item of ground-based weather modification apparatus and
coded number and location of key raingages, radars, or other precipitation measuring
devices. Also show location of airport for airborne operations.

Item 6.

Describe the weather modification apparatus, modification agents, and the techniques to
be used. This would include type of ground or airborne apparatus to be used, type of
modification material to be dispensed, rate of dispensing material in grams per hour or
other appropriate units, type of precipitation gages to be used in target and control areas,
and any other pertinent information such as type of radars, type of aircraft to be used,
techniques to be employed, (e.g., cloud base seeding at 10,000 feet msl).

Item 7.

List name, phone number , affiliation, and address of the responsible individual from whom
log books or other records may be obtained.

Item 8.

Provide applicable answers to questions as indicated.

Item 9.

This item is to permit the reporting person to include any information not covered by items
1 through 8 but which he feels is significant or of interest. It is also to be used to include
any information not covered elsewhere that the Administrator may request.

INFORMATION PROVIDED UNDER THE
PROVISIONS OF THE
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995
The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 requires that individuals or organizations be
provided with the following information if they provide information on paper forms which
are collected by the Federal Government. (This includes reports required of weather
modification activities.)
1. Public Law 92-205, enacted December 18, 1971 (amended by Public Law 94-490,
Section 6(b), October 15, 1976) requires that all non-federal weather modification activities
in the United States and its territories be reported to the Secretary of Commerce. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has implemented the Act and the current
reporting requirements are published in the Catalog of Federal Regulations (15 CFR 908).
2. The intent of the program is to increase expertise in the field of weather modification, to
allow scientists and other concerned persons to have access to information on current and
past efforts at weather modification, to help avoid unneeded and wasteful duplications, to
aid in preventing territorial overlapping of weather modification operations, to provide data
to assess possible harmful or dangerous activities, and to furnish information to check both
desirable and undesirable atmospheric changes against records of weather modification
efforts. To meet this objective, information is collected on the location and size of the
target area, names and addresses OF sponsors and operators, beginning and ending dates
of the project, specific purpose, description of apparatus and seeding agents to be used,
number of days of operations, number of hours of operations of each type of weather
modification apparatus, and total amount of seeding agent used.
3. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 40
hours for reporting and 200 hours for record keeping, based on one-half hour per response
on Form 17-4 and one-half hour per response on Form 17-4A, and five hours per record
keeper. It is estimated that the time per response is approximately the same across all
respondents. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this
data collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: Ms. Karen King,
DOC/NOAA/OAR, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
4. Reporting of this information under Public Law 92-205, enacted December 18, 1971
(amended by Public Law 94-490, Section 6(b), October 15, 1976) is mandatory.
5. Confidentiality is not a requirement for this reporting; no sensitive information is
required.
6. Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor
shall any person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of
information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act, unless that
collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.
September 1, 2000
Expires 10/31/2001