Page 195 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

scientists concerned with weather modification, hurricanes are the largest and
wildest game in the atmospheric preserve. Moreover, there are urgent reasons for
‘hunting’ and taming them.” 34
The NSF provided some initial funding for Stormfury, but it was the U.S.
Navy that was most interested in modifying and hopefully controlling the
air–ocean environment. The navy’s vision of weather control involved using
fog and low clouds as screens against enemy surveillance, calming heavy seas,
and redirecting violent storms both to enhance its own operations and to inter-
fere with enemy plans and operations. The wish list included the capability to
change the intensity and direction of hurricanes and typhoons; produce rain,
snow, or drought as desired; and “modify the climate of a specific area”—all
for the sake of military operations. As the navy saw it, the military problem in
the field of weather modification and control was “to alter, insofar as possible,
the environment surrounding the task force or target area so that the success
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of the naval operation is enhanced.” The Navy Weather Research Facility in
Norfolk, Virginia, was designated a center for weather control experiments
aimed at better understanding and controlling a vast array of atmospheric phe-
nomena. The Naval Research Laboratory was involved in developing the equip-
ment and instrumentation, while the Naval ordinance Test Station, in China
Lake, California, led by atmospheric scientist Pierre St. Amand, specialized in
pyrotechnic units for seeding clouds with silver iodide. The navy’s vast array
of instrumentation for basic cloud physics and atmospheric research and the
availability of aircraft and crews made it a logical partner for scientists seeking
support for field studies.
Frustration mounted as Stormfury scientists began to realize that their hur-
ricane-seeding hypotheses were flawed. First of all, hurricanes contain very little
of the supercooled water that is necessary for effective silver iodide seeding. Also,
the effects of seeding were so small that they were impossible to measure. Morale
plummeted when Stormfury scientists learned that the navy intended to weap-
onize their research. St. Amand, in particular, wanted to learn how to intensify
and steer hurricanes, certainly for tactical advantage but also perhaps as weapons
of war. Bob Simpson recalled, without specifying the details, that St. Amand did
not share his scientific values and “succeeded in throwing monkey wrenches into
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the works.” In 2007 Joanne Simpson, then a retired NASA employee, recalled
in an on-camera interview, “I thought it was terrible—I mean all my life I’ve
tried to work for the betterment of the planet and the people in a small way—
and to use what I have done as some kind of a military thing. I obviously am very
concerned and not happy about it.” 37

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