Tornadoes are one of the most
violent meteorological phenomena on
Earth. In an attempt to understand them,
and with the aim of some day
being able to predict them better, Dr.
Bluestein and his colleagues have
been transporting Doppler radars to
locations close to storms in order
to obtain high-resolution analyses of
the wind field associated with
them. While there are
a number of different types of tornadoes, Dr.
Bluestein has concentrated his
efforts on those that form in supercells,
long-lived convective storms having rotating
updrafts. Supercells are
the most prolific producers of the
strongest tornadoes. One objective of
his spring field programs has been to
try to observe supercells while
tornadoes form. The other main objective has
been to determine the wind
structure in tornadoes, which is of great
interest to structural
engineers.
In his talk at the
what he and his colleagues have learned
and show examples of data they
have collected using truck-mounted,
dual-polarization, W and X-band (3
mm and 3 cm wavelength) Doppler
radars from the University of
be applying to tornado research,
including a spaced-antenna technique,
phased-array rapid-scan radar, and infrared thermography.