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Recent advances in tornado observations
Article By:
Bluestein, Howard B. Department of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
Last reviewed:2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB110199
Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air in contact with the ground, underneath cumuliform clouds, that are capable of inflicting tremendous damage. In order to learn safely how the airflow in tornadoes varies in space and time, and how and why tornadoes form (tornadogenesis), it is necessary to probe them through remote-sensing techniques and by leaving instrument packages in their path. Ground-based mobile Doppler radars, mounted on trucks, have been especially useful in mapping the wind field near the ground in tornadoes. In the springs of 2009 and 2010, a major field experiment in the Plains of the United States known as VORTEX2 (Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment), involved many mobile radar systems and in situ probes.
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