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Largest High-Tech Tornado Chase Set To Begin

Posted by kdawson on from the just-a-big-blowhard dept.

coondoggie writes "Next month, with the help of a variety of high-tech gear, researchers will begin a wide-ranging project to better understand the origin, structure and evolution of tornadoes. The National Science Foundation has given $9.1 million to the project called Vortex2 (of course it has a convoluted backronym), which will take place from May 10-June 13. Researchers say Vortex2 is the largest attempt in history to study tornadoes, and will involve more than 50 scientists, 40 research vehicles, and 10 mobile radars, and will cover 900 square miles in southern South Dakota, western Iowa, eastern Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, the Texas panhandle, and western Oklahoma."

10 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Dorthy? by flipper9 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will this be the Dorthy I or the Dorthy II?

    1. Re:Dorthy? by snowraver1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Dorthy was the name of the contraption that they wanted to get up into the tornato in the movie "Twister". It looked like the cylinder shaped Coke Ice-coolers that you can find near the cash register, except it was all silver colored, and filled with many small cubes (or spheres, can't recall) that would transmit data when the whole thing got picked up and started swirling around...

      --
      Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. This comment may not be copied in any way including, but not limited to caching.
    2. Re:Dorthy? by __aapmis4709 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Right now, tornado (and severe thunderstorm) warnings are issued when one of two things happens:

      1) A tornado or a funnel cloud is spotted
      2) Doppler radar indicates strong rotation and the forecaster believes a tornado is possible or likely

      It's always better to detect the tornado vortex signature on radar before a tornado actually develops. There is some lead time, should a tornado actually develop, and people have time to take cover. But the bottom line is that we still warn based on observations, not on a forecast.

      A fundamental reason for conducting VORTEX2 is to investigate tornado formation to understand why some supercell thunderstorms are tornadic while others are not. One reason that has been suggested is that warmer rear flank downdrafts are more favorable than colder rear flank downdrafts for tornadogenesis. Physical reasons for this have been proposed, but at this time it still remains untested.

      It is hoped that by investigating the storm environment, there will be a better understanding of why some supercell thunderstorms are tornadic while others are not. If the properties of the rear flank downdraft influence the tornado potential, those observations of wind speed, temperature, moisture, and pressure are important. The purpose of understanding why some supercells are tornadic while others are not isn't just for meteorologists to publish papers in journals and get NSF funding. The purpose is to better understand tornado formation in hopes that in the future, tornado warnings are based on forecast tornado potential instead of observing the rotation. If forecasters can predict when tornadic rotation will develop in storms, it will increase the lead time on warnings. It will give people valuable time to alert others of approaching dangerous weather and to take cover.

  2. Watch out for by quangdog · · Score: 5, Funny

    The flying cows!

  3. Watch for landspouts too by Fastball · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN2_czSBSD0&NR=1

    Watch it all the way through. From 2:10 to the end is breathtaking.

  4. TIV by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Unless the Tornado Intercept Vehicle is part of the team, it's just a bunch of pansies chasing wind.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Intercept_Vehicle

  5. Tornado Evolution by __aapmis4709 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The purpose of VORTEX2, as some comments have questioned, is to test some theories about the evolution of tornadoes in thunderstorms and why some supercells produce tornadoes while others do not. In a very simplistic explanation of what's going on, vorticity about a horizontal axis is tilted to where vortex lines intersect the ground, thus tilting the rotation into the vertical and transferring the rotation to the surface. Part of the tilting is done by the rear flank downdraft, and part of the tilting is done by the updraft. However, if the rear flank downdraft is too cold, the updraft cannot lift the air in the downdraft too much, and the rotation isn't tilted into the vertical. Present theories suggest that warmer rear flank downdrafts favor tornadogenesis. Here's a link to a presentation by Dr. Markowski of Penn State about the current theory regarding tornadogenesis. VORTEX2 is an attempt to gather high resolution data sets for many supercells to test the current theory. Obviously there's much more to VORTEX2, including the testing of unmanned aircraft in storm environments. But one major objective is to test the current theory regarding tornadogenesis.

  6. Use a tank by hedleyroos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why don't they just study tornados by driving straight into one with an Abrams or Challenger tank? All the armor research has already been done for the storm chasers. Plus you'll probably get thermal imaging as a freebie.

  7. Re:900 square miles? by __aapmis4709 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The primary domain of VORTEX2 includes much of several states, and the 900 square miles is clearly a typo. Also, VORTEX2 isn't limited to that domain. If there's tornadic thunderstorms outside of the domain and no good setups within the domain, VORTEX2 could deploy outside of the domain. The primary considerations were the road networks and the lack of trees making observations easier. Areas such as the sandhills of Nebraska are outside of the domain and the road network is limited, but if that's the only thing to chase on the Plains, VORTEX could deploy there. The preferred domain is in western Oklahoma because of the observations available (CASA radars, the OK Mesonet, etc...). But VORTEX2 isn't limited to that region.

  8. Re:$9.1M to teach us... by yodleboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "if you're dumb enough to live in tornado alley"

    so what you're implying is we should just depopulate large areas of the country because of the risk of a natural/weather disaster? while we're at it let's get everyone off the west coast (earthquakes), hawaii (volcanic eruption), the east coast and gulf (hurricanes), the north and north east (blizzards). looks like the entire country is filled with idiots...

    at that point we're either mexican or canadian, pick one.