Background: NCAR is teamed with the FAA, U.S. Navy, NOAA and the U. of Quebec in a National Ceiling/Visibility R&D program. NCAR also leads the Wildland Fire R&D Collaboratory, a consortium of 20 or so groups focused on fire research. Finally, NCAR leads a precipitation enhancement program that uses a new warm seeding technique to enhance rainfall. The Problem: Superfog is a dense, hazardous fog that forms from natural processes when smoke from fires is present. This phenomena is a problem in states like Florida that have high incidences of fog conditions and smoke from prescribed fires. The Opportunity: Recently, collaboration across the three groups working at NCAR has resulted in an interesting new idea to dissipate superfog. Results from the precipitation enhancement research indicate that a similar technique could be applied to the fog problem. Hygroscopic flares (they look similar to flares used for emergencies but have a special chemical make up)are used in the rainfall studies to produce a set of nuclei for rain drops that are biased toward large drops which causes coalescence and rain. If this process worked the same way in fog, the flares could be lit near the roadway, or alternatively near the source of smoke, to initiate larger droplets (instead of the normal zillion small ones) that would coalesce and DECREASE the optical thickness of the fog, i.e. improve the visibility. An experiment could be conducted in one of the fog-prone areas using existing mobile weather data gathering vans to determine the fine structure of the fog, then correlated to the release of nuclei from the hygroscopic flares. Such an experiment would involve a couple of researchers working closely with a state DOT for several weeks. Data gathering, expendables, and analysis time would likely run $85-100K depending on location and luck in capturing good cases. If the technique works, it could be a relatively cheap way to mitigate a very hazardous roadway problem. Questions: Are there any state or federal organizations working on this problem now? Is superfog a problem in your area? If so please contribute to the community knowledge base by describing it in this forum. Is there any organization in the community that would be interested in conducting a test of this idea? Principal Investigators at NCAR interested in this problem: Dr. Janice Coen (303 497-8986) Dr. Roelof Bruintjes (303 497-8909)