From a University of Oklahoma press release, a view of a hook echo like never before.
Norman, Okla.—At the University of Oklahoma, researchers captured unprecedented high-resolution radar data during the May 10, 2010, tornadoes using one of the most advanced weather radars in the world.
“This unique polarimetric data set is likely to reveal new discoveries about tornado genesis and severe storms for years to come,” said the Director of OU’s Atmospheric Radar Research Center, Robert D. Palmer.
Figure 1. Data and image location just east of Thunderbird Lake, Norman, Oklahoma on May 10, 2010, at 5:44 pm.
Palmer’s team is currently processing the data using advanced techniques developed at OU and preparing it for distribution.
“The close proximity of the tornadoes to the OU radar has produced data with fine details of the storms never seen before with any radar.”
Located on the OU Research Campus within walking distance of the National Weather Center, the C-band, polarimetric, research weather radar known as OU-PRIME (Polarimetric Radar for Innovations in Meteorology and Engineering) was built to provide OU students and faculty with a platform for research and education in the field of radar meteorology.
Figure 2. OU-PRIME is an advanced Doppler weather radar on the University of Oklahoma Research Campus in Norman, Oklahoma.
The ARRC is an interdisciplinary center that brings together academia, government and private sector collaborators to solve challenging radar problems, prepare the next-generation of students and encourage economic growth and development in the field of weather radar. The collaboration results in research and development projects, educational opportunities for OU students and economic growth in the state.
===========================
For those of you that like to follow thunderstorms, don’t forget that there’s a dedicated appliance that will give you your own live radar channel on your TV on monitor. It may not be as cutting edge as the OU prime radar, but still pretty darn cool and useful.
Above: the StormPredator Radar Appliance automatically updates and loops the radar imagery. Click image to see larger image showing terrain and storm detail.
It uses a special version of our popular StormPredator desktop software designed for unattended continuous operation. If you just want to track storms (and calculate ETA to your location) on your laptop or desktop, you can do so easily and inexpensively with the StormPredator desktop software.
re; hydrogen generation for radiosonde balloons
We didn’t use hydrogen most of the time. The vast majority of the time the gear was located at a large permanant air station (MCAS El Toro, California) not far from the control tower. We used tanked helium there. As I recall those balloons seldom if ever popped and didn’t go much over 50,000 feet. We generally lost track of those either because the battery ran out or they were so far down range they went below the horizon. The radiosondes were tagged with return information should anyone find one on the ground but none ever got returned to us while I was there. We’d generally only launch one balloon a week at the air station just to keep in practice and make sure everything was ready for hasty deployment should the need arise. The radome and dish for the weather radar was the hardest thing to set up and break down. All the pieces pretty much filled up the van when it was broken down and secured for transport.
The gig with the NSSL in Norman, OK was great. I got a tour and demonstration of the new-fangled doppler radar while I was there. Everyone was really excited about it. My pay just about doubled too with TDY adjustments and a generous per diem allowance. I also got introduced to “three-two” beer and some odd drinking laws where you had to be 21 (I was just barely 21 at the time) to purchase anything stronger than 3.2% alcohol beer. The law had just recently changed. A year or two earlier women could purchase 3.2 beer at age 18 but men had to be 21.
There’s a good article here:
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/stories/radar3.html
on the NSSL’s doppler radar history. The hot new thing I saw in Norman in 1978 was real-time color doppler. Turns out NSSL acquired a 10cm doppler radar from the US Air Force in 1969 and added their own improvements to it. They had just added color displays in 1978 when they gave us the dog & pony show.
Great news for the entire midwest! Last year my house was hit by a “rogue” F1 at 3:00am. It didn’t do too much damage (tossed a large limb from my tree onto my neighbors house). But the sirens came on 5 minutes AFTER that. Even if we can manage to get 5 to 10 minutes more warning, it is well worth the price.
There was a December tornado in Tulsa back in the mid- or late-1970s. It was not long before Christmas and, if I remember correctly, happened in the dark. I remember seeing a cartoon in the Tulsa paper not long afterwards that showed Santa Claus with his sleigh and reindeer hanging in a tree. Santa was chiding Rudolph by saying, “Let’s get an early start, you said! Let’s start in Tulsa, you said!”
Speaking of the magnetic/electrical nature of tornadoes–I briefly saw a 3D radar representation of the tornadic storm we had last week. It reminded me of those magnetic loops on the sun. Is there a way they could use those same photographic techniques as they use to photograph magnetic loops on the sun, but use them to get an image of a tornadic storm?
Now that we have better ways of seeing tornadoes that other wise went unobserved i expect a paper from the global warming hoaxers to claim that tornadoes are now more common due to climate change within a a couple years.
I observed tornadoes during several of my Stateside tours with the Air Force – in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and South Carolina. I still have an 8mm film I took of the tornadoes that formed in Enid, Oklahoma, in 1966. There were dozens of little “pencils” dangling from the clouds, and three formed actual tornadoes. Only one stayed on the ground for very long, but it was enough.
I would expect more tornadoes from a warmer climate than a cooler one, although IIRC it’s the differential between warm and cold that actually powers the storms. My military specialty was imagery analysis. I’ve seen several photos of clouds from tornadoes taken from altitude. There is usually a flat “deck” where the storm encounters the top of the troposphere, with a shaft of clouds protruding from it directly over the tornado.
When a super cell’s updraft column ‘punches through’ the cap where the anvil top is, it is a sign of greater energy, and I suspect allows for more intense winds. A couple years ago I photographed the supercells of a tornado NW of Minneapolis and the one down by Iowa City at the same time, by shooting in both directions. Both supercells had the punch-throughs, but punch-throughs happen far more often than tornadoes do. I recommend more photography of supercells from a distance simultaneously with dopplar radar and observers close to the base. 3D plus time could be very interesting, and allow for better prediction, possibly.
When I was a boy, we’d see weather balloons from time to time. Bright lights in the late afternoon, early evening sky. I’d get my telescope out to see the spheres. Those were cool to see.
We still can’t get doppler in Wallowa Valley. Boise’s radar unit gets up the back (South facing) of the Wallowa’s. Pendleton’s unit gets up the West facing side of the Blues. Those are the only two close enough to reach the outskirts of this fairly large county. That means that spotters are used to continue to track the movement of cells past the reach of doppler. The Columbus day storm will strike again and we will be left to our own devices. No wonder the weather forecasts for the Wallowa Valley are nearly always wrong.
MattN says:
May 24, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Not a £$%^&*g hope!
I was thinking exactly the same thing.
DaveE.
http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-26/atlantic-hurricane-season-going-to-be-uglier-than-usual-researcher-says.html
Hot off the press.
regards