Largest High-Tech Tornado Chase Set To Begin 112
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."
Dorthy? (Score:4, Funny)
Will this be the Dorthy I or the Dorthy II?
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old movie reference, "Twister", to a device used to study a tornado.
Re:Dorthy? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dorthy? (Score:4, Funny)
They should have made it cow shaped. In the movie, the cows had no problem getting picked up by tornados.
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Dorothy was a bunch of spheres whereas Dr miller's team had the cubes in their version of dorothy....but I digress.
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I appreciate any waste of time and money to study and find out about things like this.
I'm not a jacked-up-storm-chasin'-girl gettin'-scientist, but I'd think when it comes to tornados, a few things would be relevant to the average person, and the rest not very relevant. Among the relevant:
Among the not so relevant things
Change! (Score:2)
Re:Dorthy? (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.
They *should* add... (Score:2)
Considering that you get a good 1- or 2-A current in tornados, through several million volts, they should also add in that mix that they announce a tornado when they see a large magnetic change near the storm.
Where lightning is an AC speaker system (resulting in thunder -- the cloud surface bouncing up and down), the tornado is a large DC motor.
That also has an effect, because you *can* do something about tornados. At least the smaller ones, you can discharge them.
10kV power lines do a pretty good job of i
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I'm not a jacked-up-storm-chasin'-girl gettin'-scientist, but I'd think when it comes to tornados, a few things would be relevant to the average person,
You must be one of those overweight, poorly socialized, lives in his parents' basement type scientists. Then again, it's highly unlike you're a scientist, as you're also posting on slashdot.
What, no discovery special? (Score:1)
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Amen, brother!
I mean the safe travel, not the webdev...
Watch out for (Score:5, Funny)
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AIR COW!
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...say they those scientists will suck, other say they are just full of air, and yet, this will spin into awesomeness when we finally get to know what is going on inside a tornado and such. Just please don't tell me they are going to get M. Night to work with them, it would definitely be a twist.
Bravo. That's impressive. What a twist!
We have a cow (Score:1, Funny)
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Tornado evolution??? (Score:2)
What do they evolve into? You can just rock me to sleep tonight!
So long as... (Score:3, Funny)
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$9.1M to teach us... (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:$9.1M to teach us... (Score:4, Funny)
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.
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I didn't bother reading the rest of your comment, but that should be modded either +1 Insightful or -1 Obvious. ;)
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Lets see...
Fires (Rare and nothing too serious)
Earthquakes (No)
Blizzards (Never)
Hurricanes (No)
Volcanoes (No)
Tsunamis (No)
Landslides (Not often, and rare in poulated areas)
Drought (yeah, but good management can deal with that)
Floods (Nothing serious)
Does this count? [wikipedia.org]
If not, welcome to paradise...
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Or perhaps that fragile structures are more vulnerable to tornadoes?
SB
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No idiots are attracted to tornadoes. Not sure what that says about these "scientists", but it can't be good, and will be fun to watch.
Watch for landspouts too (Score:5, 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.
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TIV (Score:5, 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 [wikipedia.org]
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Wow, what a big pile of shit. The second edition is extra-retarded, they actually convered a 4x4 to a 6x6 instead of just buying one of the many 6x6s available all over the country. The idea is cool, the implementation is stupid.
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Haha (Score:2)
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Kansas? (Score:2)
This is just scientists trying to figure out how to get to the land of Oz.
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Which will be the first research vehicle (Score:2)
Am I the only one... (Score:2)
... who read that as a "high-tech tomato chase"?!
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Yeah.
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900 square miles? (Score:1)
Re:900 square miles? (Score:5, Informative)
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Did the advances in radar technology make the idea of multiple sensor observation obsolete?
I suspect both would be valuable.
But...
Interjecting knowledgeable, well thought out commentary into a discussion on slashdot?
You must be new here ;)
Thanks, bro.
SB
Tornado Evolution (Score:4, Informative)
Where'd the water go? (Score:2, Funny)
I just hope they don't use it near any pools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqzlDj0N47g [youtube.com]
Use a tank (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.
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They do have a vehicle for that. It's called the TIV or Tornado Intercept Vehicle. I live in the Midwest (one of the states mentioned above) and we heard (and saw) that the TIV was passing by last May when a F2 tornado tore through city. If your curious, the vehicle is featured on a show called Storm Chasers on Discovery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Intercept_Vehicle [wikipedia.org]
Yeah, but, can you SHOOT the tornado? I don't think so!
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As another comment has pointed out, the TIV is exactly such a vehicle. The purpose of the vehicle is to attempt to get good observations of near-surface winds in a tornadic vortex. Mobile radars have done a good job of measuring winds at heights of 75 or 100 meters above the surface. But the question is how strong are the winds near the surface where they actually have the potential to do damage.
In addition to the TIV and the DOW (Doppler On Wheels), pods with instruments are also deployed to take observati
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Why don't they just study tornados by driving straight into one with an Abrams or Challenger tank?
because that would be 80% of their budget spent on a single vehicle?
Seismometers? (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW, the Blue Ash tornado they mention actually woke me up. I remember hearing a train-like sound and thinking "I hope that's not a tornado. I don't want to sleep in the bathtub." Turns out the sucker must have been descending as it went over me. Touched down about a mile away, but the path points right back to where I lived.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
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"...n anyone can make a passable BLT"
no, most people can't. Usually the toast is toasted to the consistence of a cracker, the bacon shatters when you try to bit t, and the tomatoes a slimy.
I've pretty much given up on ordering one.
Hardcore Tornado Pr0n! (Score:3, Interesting)
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Mmmm Manchester tornado... [youtube.com]
Is now a good time to mention that I am chasing starting next week with a bunch of veteran chasers armed with SLR and HD cameras?
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Oblig XKCD:
http://xkcd.com/305/ [xkcd.com]
$9.1 Million Budget? (Score:1)
Tornado 101 for those unfamiliar (Score:4, Informative)
Tornado 101 for those who are curious, since this always comes up if I travel overseas.
1. Are tornadoes really that dangerous?
Yes that can be very dangerous, capable of rendering concrete building to rubble in seconds. They can rip interstate freeways out of the ground and have been recorded of 1.5 km in size (the small fast moving ones are arguably more dangerous). However they tend to very erratic, they can destroy one house, leave the next door house intact and destroy the one after that. By and large they don't kill huge numbers of people, but they do a lot of damage.
2. Why don't people live away from where tornadoes exist?
Because tornado alley is quite large, much bigger in size than the UK, arguably around Germany in size or larger (depending on how you measure tornado alley). Since your chance of encountering a tornado at your home in any given year is pretty small, people tend to view them about like they do the chances of being struck by lightning. Why abandon the midsection of the country on an oddball chance?
3. Are tornadoes all that dangerous?
Nope, most are small in size and many never even touch down. It's a rare tornado that destroys entire towns.
4. Can they occur at night?
Yup, they definitely can occur at night, (I've encountered one at night and it was pretty freaky).
I'm not a meteorologist or anything, I've just lived through a few and know these questions seem to pop up...
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Adding to #2, tornadoes happen everywhere. They're most common in "tornado alley", but happen quite often in the southeast, too, and also happen up the east coast and in other areas. They're also often spawned by hurricanes when they come ashore...
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re: 2. Why don't people live away from where tornadoes exist?
Tornadoes can occur anywhere on the globe. They occur in NY, PA, and New England every year.The ones we get are usually much smaller and do not cause as much damage but have caused significant property damage. My parents' property has been hit a couple of times. One tornado just tore off the tops of a couple of trees, and the other just ripped the foliage off of a swath of trees in the woods, crossed the river next door and caused over a quarter o
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5. Do tornadoes have an affinity to certain landscape features?
Yes. They are attracted to trailer parks.
Seriously though, I cannot think of a worse structure to put in tornado alley! They are shee metal and/or vinyl and offer no protection. (That being said, 2x4s can be forced through a refrigerator and cinderblock walls, but theya re still better protection because cinderblocks won't collapse.
The best structure is a geodesic dome. There are no walls for the wind to force upon. You see, the first part of bu
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Bah. I'll take a bunker, thankyouverymuch. Now if only I could convince the wife to let me build one...
Think about it: protection from storms and high wind, won't burn down, harder to break into, better insulated, and less disruptive to the local landscape after construction. What's not to like, besides the fact that you can't build one close to sea level?
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Someone will park a trailer on it.
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On the lee side of a dome there will still be a big vacuum. You need a teardrop shape to get rid of that vacuum, which is why every type of bird, fish (and man-made counterparts, airplanes and submarines) are basically composed of tear drop cross sections - to minimize drag. You could make a really flat dome such that it was sufficiently teardropped in all directions, but it's not really what we thin
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Actually, since you can't choose the direction of the wind, and the wind constantly changes direction, the teardrop is out of the question.
The weather probes that they lay in the path are dome shaped and require no additional securing. The winds actually create downforce which holds the probes in place.
And I already mentioned one problem with a bunker. Another is that crap can land on top and you're trapped forever.
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5. During what season do they show up?
They happen any season, though the highest frequency is during the summer months they have been known to happen even in wintertime, and in those cases are even more dangerous (trying to find a grayish-white funnel with grayish-white clouds and white snow covered ground while snowing is extremely difficult). Basically any combining of cold dry air with warm humid air has a potential for creating tornados and funnel-clouds. In winter, such combinations are often what bri
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They happen any season, though the highest frequency is during the summer months they have been known to happen even in wintertime, and in those cases are even more dangerous (trying to find a grayish-white funnel with grayish-white clouds and white snow covered ground while snowing is extremely difficult). Basically any combining of cold dry air with warm humid air has a potential for creating tornados and funnel-clouds. In winter, such combinations are often what bring on your basic snow storms.
In the south, winter is the most dangerous time when it comes to tornadoes. For example, just from February, 2008, there were 12 killer tornadoes with 59 fatalities. Snow had nothing to do with it, there were your average supercell thunderstorms combined with warm, humid air from the Gulf mixing to create a dangerous situation.
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A few additional comments from someone who has lived in both Tornado Alley and Hurricane Central (aka the Gulf Coast):
1. Are tornadoes really that dangerous? Yes that can be very dangerous, capable of rendering concrete building to rubble in seconds.
Even an EF0 tornado (which is viewed as incredibly weak) can do substantial damage to small buildings, mobile homes, and vehicles.
However they tend to very erratic, they can destroy one house, leave the next door house intact and destroy the one after that.
Part of that is due to the tornado having multiple vortices, where you can have a weak vortex and inside is a much stronger vortex. See Xenia, Ohio, 1974 for an explanation.
2. Why don't people live away from where tornadoes exist?
The United States just happens to have the exact sort of geographic and weather patterns t
They can chase it, but they won't catch it . . . (Score:2)
. . . I hate to disappoint them. This demonstrates geekdom at its best: doing something dangerous just to get at the bottom of natural phenomena amd understand it. It reminds me of Benjamin Franklin's kite in the thunderstorm.
Welp, these youngen's with their high tech gadgets may chase down a Texas-sized tornado, but they won't be lassoing it up and hauling it back to the ranch.
Kansas Storm Chasing (Score:3, Informative)
I certainly hope to run into these fine people on the highway. Too bad they probably are going to stay really far west. I'm equipped with 40 mile radar, satellite weather imagery, and a very fast station wagon it all goes in.
Ob. Twister reference (Score:1)
Researchers say Vortex2 is the largest attempt in history to study tornadoes, and will involve more than 50 scientists, 40 research vehicles....
...all of which are Dodge Ram pickup trucks, I presume?
In other news (Score:1)
May set to see the lowest number of weather phenomena in 100 years. Researchers aren't scared.
THe only think that blows qorse then this story (Score:2)
is arriving late after all the puns have been said.
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Naaa, not true, one pun they missed, it's aboot a 1000 [xkcd.com] miles north from Tornado Alley!
Research is great and everything, but... (Score:1)
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Why chase? (Score:2)
Design your instrument packages to look like mobile homes and let the tornadoes come to you.
Be Careful (Score:1)
Better link (Score:2)
Damn (Score:2)
I thought it meant vxWorks had joined the stimulus software giveaway. Their development environment and cross-compiler suite is called, "Tornado". Too bad.
Storm chasers on Discovery. (Score:2)
As long as this funding gives me a more interesting Storm Chasers [discovery.com] Season, then I'm sold.
Although I wish the show would focus a little more on the science rather than which team member this week is pissed off at Dr. Wurman. [discovery.com]
Can't Wait (Score:1)
Riiight (Score:1)
The name: VORTEX2... (Score:2)
Now, I may be mistaken, but I am fairly certain that it has been quite solidly verified that tornadoes do, in fact rotate.
... and this is the second time they've spend ~$10 million to figure that out.
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