NOAA Form 17-4 Initial Report on Weather Modification Activities

NOAA FORM 17-4
(4-81)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

INITIAL REPORT ON WEATHER MODIFICATION ACTIVITIES
This report is required by Public Law 92-205; 85 Stat. 735; 145 U.S.C. 330b.
Knowing and willful violation of any rule adopted under the authority of Section 2 of
Public Law 92-205 shall subject the person violating such rule to a fine of not more
than $10,000, upon conviction thereof.
1. PROJECT OR ACTIVITY DESIGNATION, IF ANY

Form Approved OMB Control No. 0648-0025
Expires XX/XX/20XX
Complete in accordance with instructions on reverse and forward one copy to:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
1315 East-West Highway, WWMC-3, Rm 11216
Silver Spring, MD 20910
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

LOCATION

SIZE OF AREA

CONTROL 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.
NAME
AFFILIATION

PHONE NUMBER

STREET ADDRESS
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 all statements in this report on this weather
modification project are complete and correct to the best of my knowledge and
are made in good faith.

NAME OF REPORTING PERSON

AFFILIATION

SIGNATURE

STREET ADDRESS

OFFICIAL TITLE

CITY

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 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,
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 purposes 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 rain gauges, 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 gauges 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-based 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 o f1995 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.
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
Code 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 seeing agent used.
3. A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a
person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently
valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 06480025. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information collection. Public reporting for this
information collection is estimated to be approximately 30 minutes per response, including the time for
reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and
completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are
mandatory pursuant to Public Law 92-205, enacted December 18, 1971 (amended by Public Law 94-490,
Section 6(b), October 15, 1976). Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of
this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the OAR Weather Program
Office at Weather.Modification@noaa.gov.