Analysis of Microwave Radiometer Data for the La Sal Mountains of Southeastern Utah during the 2017/18 Winter Season

A request to perform a study of the La Sal and Abajo Mountain Ranges was approved by the Lower Basin States in February 2016. This feasibility/design work was funded by the three Lower Colorado River Basin States (Arizona, California and Nevada) and the work administered by the Utah Division of Water Resources (UDWR) under a contractual agreement with North American Weather Consultants, Inc. (NAWC). Since several assumptions were made in developing the preliminary program design, it was recommended that a microwave radiometer be operated for one winter season to provide additional atmospheric data for use in finalizing the design. During the winter season of 2017-2018, a Radiometrics microwave radiometer was installed in the town of Moab, located in southeastern Utah to observe the occurrence of supercooled liquid water (SLW), which is the target of winter orographic cloud seeding programs, and other atmospheric parameters over the La Sal Mountains. This presentation will describe the operation of the radiometer and subsequent analyses using the collected data.