Seminars & Workshops

Mobile-Doppler-radar observations of tornadoes

Howard (Howie "Cb") Bluestein
George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Meteorology
School of Meteorology
University of Oklahoma, Norman

Abstract:
Tornadoes are one of the most violent meteorological phenomena on Earth. In an attempt to understand them, with the aim of some day being able to predict them better, we have been transporting Doppler radars to locations close to storms in order to obtain high-resolution analyses of the wind field associated with them. While there are a number of different types of tornadoes, we have concentrated our efforts on those that form in supercells, long-lived convective storms having rotating updrafts. Supercells are the most prolific producers of the strongest tornadoes. One objective of our spring field programs has been to try to observe supercells while tornadoes form. The other main objective has been to determine the wind structure in tornadoes, which is of great interest to structural engineers.

I will summarize briefly what we have learned and show examples of data we have collected using truck-mounted, dual-polarization, W and X-band (3 mm and 3 cm wavelength) Doppler radars from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I will also note some new techniques we will soon be applying to tornado research: This spring we will test a dual-polarized spaced-antenna at X-band for determining the two-dimensional wind field from only one radar, and a phased-array rapid-scan radar at X-band.