Evaluation of cloud seeding project in Yazd Province of Iran using historical regression method (case study: Yazd 1 cloud seeding project, 1999)

Abstract

In this research, the result of the cloud seeding over Yazd province during three months of February, March and April in 1999 has been evaluated using the historical regression method. Hereupon, the rain-gages in Yazd province as the target stations and the rain-gages of the neighboring provinces as the control stations have been selected. The rainfall averages for the three aforementioned months through 25 years (1973-1997) in all control and target stations have been calculated. In the next step, the correlations between the rainfalls of control and target stations have been estimated about 75%, which indicates a good consistency in order to use the historical regression. Then, through the obtained liner correlation equation between the control and target stations the precipitation amount for February, March and April in 1999, over the target region (Yazd province) was estimated about 27.57 mm, whiles the observed amount was 34.23 mm. In fact the precipitation increasing around 19.5% over Yazd province confirmed the success of this cloud seeding project.