NSSL Field Command Vehicle with Wyoming tornado in the background. Credit: Mike Coniglio

The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment – 2 data collection began its second year of data collection on May 1 and will be in the field through June 15. VORTEX2 is the largest tornado research project in history to explore how, when and why tornadoes form.

NOAA and the National Science Foundation are sponsoring more than 100 scientists, students and staff from around the world to collect weather data around and under a supercell thunderstorm. VORTEX2 teams are using a fleet of 10 mobile radars and 70 other instruments all equipped with cutting edge communication and computer technologies. Much about tornadoes remains a mystery, and researchers hope this data will help them better understand tornadoes and lead to further improvements in tornado warning skill.

During 2009 operations, the VORTEX2 armada roamed more than 10,000 miles across the southern and central Plains from May 10-June 13. Data were collected on 11 supercells, including one tornadic supercell.

New for 2010 operations will be the addition of the University of Colorado Tempest Unmanned Aerial System – model airplanes designed to fly underneath the storm to collect data. Also, three more mobile radars now have dual-polarization capabilities and the radar scouts and mobile mesonets have been redesigned to make operations more efficient.

VORTEX2 2010 operations can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, and through a blog called V2Talk. More information is available on the web: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/vortex2.

More information: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/vortex2

Don Burgess, Research Scientist, CIMMS working with NSSL

In the springs of 1994 and 1995, scientists at the NOAA National Severe Storms Lab began searching for answers as to how tornadoes form. They gathered data in the field – meeting the storms head on. This was called VORTEX, or the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment. Don Burgess, a research scientist, working with the lab, reflects on his involvement with this project.

Burgess: “The first VORTEX was our big experiment – first time with mobile radars, lot more mobile instrumentation than ever before, mobile Mesonets instead of stationary Mesonet sites – to go out and study super cells in great detail.”

Mobile Mesonets from VORTEX '95

Traveling through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, meteorologists planned to target a single storm each day to gather data. For the first time ever, VORTEX successfully documented the entire life cycle of a tornado. Between May and June of 2009 and 2010, many meteorologists from across the country will again be heading out to study tornadoes. This project, named VORTEX2, will be take place in the Central Plains. Areas of focus include southern South Dakota, western Iowa, eastern Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma. The VORTEX2 Operation Center will be at the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. This field project will not only have scientists from the NOAA National Severe Storms Lab, but will also include participants from about a dozen universities and non-profit organizations. VORTEX2 is an $11.9 million dollar program funded by the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meteorologists will be trying to understand why, when, and how tornadoes form.

Burgess: “VORTEX2 is this once-in-a-decade expenditure that we have had historically and will have again where we put a lot of effort into a detailed study. We really want to get an incremental increase in basic understanding. This is focused towards super cells. They are important b/c they spawn the worst and most significant tornadoes. Tornadoes do come from other systems besides super cells. They deserve study as well but the big ones and the bad ones come from super cells so we want to understand them first and tornado genesis. Although we’ve made progress, we still really don’t understand everything so this is an important field program that is upcoming.

NO-XP mobile radar vehicle

Mobile Mesonets

Numerous special vehicles will be used for VORTEX2. There will be at least ten mobile radars in the field. These are large trucks equipped with weather radars that can be driven anywhere around the storm or tornado. Nine mobile mesonets, which are cars with various weather instrumentation attached to their roofs, will help efficiently collect data. The project will also include four vehicles with the capability of launching weather balloons into various locations of a storm. This is crucial for fully understanding the atmosphere. This impressive fleet of storm vehicles will be hard to miss as they drive towards severe storms this spring. Lou Wicker, a research meteorologist, will be organizing the National Severe Storms Lab’s role in this program

Lou Wicker, Research Meteorolgist, N

Wicker: This is probably one of the largest field programs for severe storms in the last twenty years. We are looking at approximately eight or nine universities, NCAR, and probably up to eighty to one hundred people involved in this. An armada on the road of about 40 vehicles. National Weather Service forecasters are volunteering their time to help forecast. All sorts of individuals that are closely tied to the severe storm research community. We are very excited about that. We feel very lucky to do this and we’re hoping to push the envelope pretty far out there.

Tornado POD

Sticknet

There is also some cutting edge technology being used in the way of unmanned instrumentation. Some of these include Tornado PODs and Sticknets, which meteorologists will attempt to place as close to where they expect tornadoes to form as possible. These devices are able to measure wind speed and direction, record hail and precipitation, as well as measure other important atmospheric variables. Another interesting piece of equipment is the unmanned instrumented aerial system. This will be flown across outflow boundaries and beneath rotating thunderstorms to measure pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speeds. All of this instrumentation together, with a variety of vehicles, should provide an amazing amount of storm data to investigate. VORTEX2 is the largest and most ambitious field project ever to collect data on tornadoes. It will involve nearly 100 scientists and students. The hope is that the data gathered will one day allow National Weather Service forecasters to understand, with plenty of lead time, which specific storms will produce tornadoes.

Imagine getting a warning with details such as when and where a tornado will touch down, how long it will last, and how intense it will be. These are the ambitious goals of VORTEX2.