THE CHEMICAL IDENTIFICATION OF SILVER-IODIDE ICE NUCLEI: A LABORATORY AND PRELIMINARY FIELD STUDY

Abstract

The technique and results of the application of a chemical test, explicit for silver iodide, sensitive to a mass of 3 × 10⁻¹⁷ g, to laboratory-nucleated ice crystals and atmospheric ice crystals from cloud-seeding experiments in the field are described. In laboratory ice crystals, it was found that the silver-iodide nucleus was not always in the apparent “C” axis of the ice crystals. This deviation is discussed. Because of difficulties in the preservation of the ice crystals from the field experimentation, no evidence of the true role of silver iodide in cloud seeding was obtained.