2009_deploymentsVerification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2
Links
NSF Abstract
VORTEX2 Website
Platform
Tempest UAS
2010 Field Campaign
| 06 May 2010 | Supercell intercept with the VORTEX2 armada. |
| 26 May 2010 | Supercell intercept with onboard video. |
| 06 June 2010 | Boundary sampling. |
| 07 June 2010 | 2 Attempted supercell intercepts. |
| 09 June 2010 | Supercell intercept. |
| 10 June 2010 | Tornadic supercell intercept. |
2009 Field Campaign
| 06 June 2009 | Single deployment in NW Nebraska. |
| 07 June 2009 | Two deployments, one in SE Nebraska, one in central Missouri. |
| 09 June 2009 | Two deployments, both in SW Kansas. |
Project Overview
The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX) is a multi-agency field program to investigate (i) tornadogenesis, maintenance, and demise, (ii) tornado near-ground wind field, (iii) relationships among tornadoes, their parent thunderstorms, and the larger-scale environment, and (iv) numerical weather prediction of supercells and tornadoes. The second field experiment of VORTEX (VORTEX2) is proposed in the United States Great Plains region during the months of April-June, 2009-2010. It will be conducted as a two-phase experiment. A "tethered" phase, utilizing an adaptable observation network tethered to fixed observing facilities in central Oklahoma and conducted in each April and early May, will address foci related to storm-environment and storm-storm interactions, as well as numerical predictability. A "fully mobile" phase will take place in mid-May through June over a broad region of the central United States, with a focus on tornadogenesis and tornado wind fields.
UAVs will sample storm-scale thermodynamic fields in the 100-1000 m layer. The UAVs will be visually and electronically tethered to the mobile D-6 mesonet vehicles. UAV technology is developing rapidly and has great potential [e.g., UAVs have been deployed successfully in tropical cyclones (Lin 2006; Rogers et al. 2006); also see http://recuv.colorado.edu]. Admittedly, the use of UAVs for meteorological purposes is still in its infancy. It is for this reason that our proposed use of UAVs in VORTEX2 is fairly conservative (e.g., the UAVs will be tethered to vehicles on the ground).
