http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/en-usSciencenssl.webmaster@noaa.gov (Vicki Farmer)nssl.outreach@noaa.gov (Susan Cobb)Thu, 16 May 13 00:00:00 -0500http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=186http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=186Thu, 16 May 13 00:00:00 -0500The March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado was unusually severe, killing 695 people while it was on the ground for a record 219 miles crossing parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Unfortunately, there is only one formal paper regarding the tornado and its meteorological setting.

A team of eight severe storms meteorologists re-analyzed the event using all relevant U.S. Weather Bureau data on the Tri-State Tornado. The results, published in the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology, revealed previous analyses of the surface weather conditions were inaccurate and led to misconceptions about where the tornado formed in reference to the existing weather system. The authors include retired NSSL Director Bob Maddox, retired NSSL/CIMMS researchers Chuck Doswell, Don Burgess and Charlie Crisp, retired Storm Prediction Center (SPC) meteorologist Bob Johns and current SPC meteorologist John Hart, and Steve Piltz from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Tulsa, Okla.

The researchers concluded there was no singular feature in the meteorological setting that would explain the extreme character of the Tri-State tornado. The storms of 18 March were associated with a rapidly moving cyclone that was not unusually intense. The new analyses show a long-lived supercell that developed very near the center of the cyclone produced the tornado, possibly where a warm front and a distinct dryline intersected. The south-to-north temperature gradient was very pronounced due to cooling produced by early morning storms and precipitation. The tornadic supercell tracked at an average speed of 59mph moving farther away from the cyclone center with time. And, the storm remained very close to the surface warm front.

Researchers did find as the supercell and dryline moved rapidly eastward, the northward advance of the warm front kept the tornadic supercell within a very favorable storm environment for several hours. It appears this consistent time and space connection of the supercell, warm front, and dryline was extremely unusual.

With reanalysis beginning 70 years after the tornado, it was impossible to confirm the complete continuity of the damage path along the reported path. Even with extensive field work discovering 2,395 individual damage points, there were 32 gaps of at least one mile in length, but only 7 gaps longer than 2.5 miles in length. All of the longer gaps were in the Missouri portion of the path; within the sparsely-populated Ozark mountain area. Assuming that gaps shorter than 2.5 miles might still represent a continuous tornado, the continuous path was at least 174 miles long. Additional, previously unreported tornadoes were also found before the beginning and after the end of the Tri-State Tornado. The research also allowed for conclusion that the storm was a supercell; classic in its stages and high-precipitation in the later stages. The supercell also produced accompanying hail up to baseball size and non-tornadic damaging winds.

http://www.ejssm.org/ojs/index.php/ejssm/issue/archive

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=185http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=185Wed, 15 May 13 00:00:00 -0500Today, researchers launched the Mesoscale Predictability EXperiment (MPEX) field project to collect data on pre-storm and post-storm environments in an effort to better predict where and when thunderstorms will form. MPEX runs from May 15 – June 15, and is funded by the National Science Foundation.

NSSL researchers will team with Colorado State University and Purdue to launch weather balloons carrying instrument packages called radiosondes. They hope to find out how thunderstorms interact with the atmosphere that surrounds and supports them, and how this affects formation of new thunderstorms. They also hope to ingest the balloon data into computer models to see how the extra data collected during the afternoon can help predict the location and severity of evening storms better.

Researchers with the National Center for Atmospheric Research will use a Gulfstream V aircraft to sample pre-storm jet stream winds, upper–level temperatures and other features across Colorado and nearby states. The aircraft will cruise at 40,000 feet for up to six hours so researchers can thoroughly canvass the region. The data they collect will also be ingested into computer models to show how well the extra data can help predict local and regional weather conditions into the next day.

Additional participants are from the University at Albany, State University of New York and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/mpex/

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=184http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=184Mon, 06 May 13 00:00:00 -0500During the 2013 central Oklahoma severe weather season, researchers will demonstrate and evaluate new capabilities developed for the NOAA National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar (NWRT/PAR). The most recent software upgrade, released in March 2013 provides new automated storm detection, tracking and scheduled scanning capabilities for NWRT/PAR.

Researchers will target storms within 120nm of NWRT/PAR to examine the strengths and limitations of storm cluster identification and tracking algorithms, and their usefulness for enhanced rapid sampling of severe storms. They will also use the data to understand how a thunderstorm evolves into a supercell and as it begins to produce a downburst or possible tornado. Researchers will evaluate how useful this information could be for enhanced warning lead-time during severe weather warning operations.

In addition, NSSL will work with 12 National Weather Service forecasters during six weeks in May, June, and July. They will assess how the use of rapid-scan NWRT/PAR helps with situational awareness and warning decisions during simulated severe weather events.

New this year, NSSL’s dual-pol research radar will be used as a proxy for future dual-pol Multi-function Phased Array Radar (MPAR) observations. Researchers will observe rapid changes in dual-pol signatures that occur in cyclic supercells and downbursts.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=182http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=182Fri, 03 May 13 00:00:00 -0500NSSL tornado climatology expert, Harold Brooks has written a blog post about the remarkable absence of tornado activity during the 12-month period from May 2012 to April 2013. The estimated number of EF-1 or stronger tornadoes for this period is 197, a record low.

Brooks compared the current 12-month period with previous (E)F1 or stronger tornado counts back through 1954. He found the previous low for (E)F1 and stronger tornadoes in a 12 consecutive calendar month period was 247, from June 1991-May 1992.

This apparent record was set less than two years after the record for most EF1+ tornadoes in a 12-month period was set, with 1050 from June 2010-May 2011.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=181http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=181Tue, 16 Apr 13 00:00:00 -0500The National Weather Center will host renowned physicist Dr. Francis Slakey, Associate Director of Public Affairs at the American Physical Society, at 4 p.m. April 23 in Room 1313. Slakey ‘s topic is also the title of his book, “To the Last Breath – A Memoir of Going to Extremes.” The book is on Amazon’s “2012 Best Books of the Year” list.

In 2009, Slakey became the first person to summit the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean (including the Arctic) on Earth. He plans to share how he used the laws of physics to his advantage in his climbing expeditions and the knowledge of the geophysics of waves to surf. He will also talk about how his adventures led him on a path to address global challenges such as climate change. For years Slakey has inspired students and researchers across the nation to address societal challenges through science and motivated them to turn their ideas into legislation.

This seminar is part of a new “Science Policy and Its Significance to Weather, Water and Climate” class offered by the University of Oklahoma and taught by NSSL /CIMMS research meteorologist Subhashree Mishra. Speakers include:

- Harold Brooks, NSSL Research Meteorologist

- Mike Douglas, NSSL Research Meteorologist

- Pam Heinselman, NSSL Research Meteorologist

- Kevin Kelleher, NSSL deputy director

- Edwin Kessler, retired NSSL director

- Pete Lamb, CIMMS director

More information is available here: http://som.ou.edu/seminars/

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=180http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=180Fri, 12 Apr 13 00:00:00 -0500The NWSFO in Birmingham, Ala. used an NSSL product to plan surveys of damage caused by the tornadoes on April 11, 2013. NSSL's On Demand is a web-based tool that can be used to help confirm when and where severe weather occurred.
Bright reds and yellows show more intense circulations.

On Demand uses data gathered and sorted by NSSL's Warning Decision Support System-Integrated Information (WDSS-II) to estimate the tracks of rotating storms and where hail fell. The rotation tracks or hail swath data can be overlaid on high-resolution street maps in Google Earth/Maps to pinpoint areas affected by the hazardous weather.

The WDSS-II system receives data in real-time from the nationwide networks of weather radars, satellites, surface observations and lightning detectors. WDSS-II then processes, analyzes and displays the data in a way that is useful to people who need to diagnose severe weather quickly.

The growing list of users include other NWSFO's, emergency responders and the American Red Cross.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=179http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=179Fri, 29 Mar 13 00:00:00 -0500Twice each year NSSL engineers release a software upgrade to improve the capabilities of the National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar (NWRT PAR). The Spring 2013 upgrade was released this week and is now operational.

Specific goals for this project are to improve the quality of meteorological data produced by the NWRT PAR, to demonstrate adaptive scanning capabilities for weather observations, and to demonstrate dynamic scheduling of multi-function scanning strategies.

The new software release includes:

- A new algorithm that identifies and tracks clusters of storms

- Automatic time-based scheduling of storm regions

- Scheduling and processing of a scan that quickly detects newly formed storms

- Real-time controller improvements to reduce initial range of collection and

to allow frequent switching between pulse repetition times

- Improvements to control and monitor the system and its algorithms

- Improvements to handle ground-clutter and range-and-velocity ambiguity issues

- Software infrastructure improvements to prevent data drops

New and advanced real-time signal processing techniques continue to provide researchers and users with an optimum platform for demonstrating and evaluating the Multi-function Phased Array Radar (MPAR) concept.

More information about the MPARSUP project can be found at:

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/mparsup/

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=178http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=178Wed, 20 Mar 13 00:00:00 -0500NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory has led the nation in severe weather research for more than 40 years.

A new video traces NSSL’s legacy of life saving weather radar research from the development of Doppler weather radar to the most recent research with phased array radar. This technology has moved the U.S. from having no warning of severe weather to now an average of 15-minutes advanced notice. Current research with phased array radar promises to extend the warning lead-time much further.

The video also highlights the unique research to operations partnership between NSSL and the NOAA NWSFO in Norman, Okla.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=177http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=177Fri, 08 Feb 13 00:00:00 -0600NSSL and collaborators will leverage new technology including dual-polarized radar observations and a precipitation reporting app to improve forecasts of winter weather during February and March.

The experiment will evaluate the performance of new algorithms that use dual-polarized radar data and determine what new tools could be developed to improve detection of precipitation type and amount in winter storms.

The group will assess a new technique that is a “first-guess” of precipitation type using dual-pol data and compare it to observations collected from the Precipitation Identification Near the Ground mobile app and the Severe Hazards Analysis and Verification Experiment phone calls. They plan to identify potential biases and regions of poor performance.

They will also look at quantitative precipitation estimation products that include dual-polarized information and compare them to current products to see if dual-polarized data improves the result.

The experiment is a collaboration between NSSL, the Storm Prediction Center, the Norman Weather Forecast Office and the National Weather Service Warning Decision Training Branch and the Radar Operations Center.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=176http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=176Fri, 01 Feb 13 00:00:00 -0600The NOAA NSSL will host the Technical Workshop on Numerical Guidance Support Warn-on-Forecast on Tuesday February 5.

The fourth annual Warn on Forecast and High Impact Weather Workshop will follow on February 6-7.

Warn-on-Forecast collaborators include NSSL and Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center, The University of Oklahoma’s Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms, and Social Science Woven Into Meteorology.

These workshops give researchers an opportunity to present progress reports and to discuss plans for further research toward improvements in lead time for severe weather warnings.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=175http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=175Fri, 16 Nov 12 00:00:00 -0600NSSL hosted a booth at the OU GIS Day event at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. on Wednesday, November 14. GIS Day is celebrated internationally to promote awareness of geospatial science and technology. The OU GIS Day event was the first of its kind at the university, and was an opportunity for nearly two dozen organizations to showcase their work in geographical information systems, global positioning systems, and remote sensing. Participation was open to K-12/undergraduate/graduate students, academia and researchers, private industry, non-governmental organizations, local/state/federal agencies, and the public.

NSSL’s booth featured displays of cloud climatology research using high-resolution MODIS satellite data. Researchers also showed images of NSSL’s On Demand system that plots, using Google Earth, swaths of hail and tracks of circulations detected by radar. Also displayed were a poster providing information about spatial datasets developed by and housed at NSSL to support NWS flash-flood operations, and a poster showing the results of a study relating the locations of reported flash-flood impacts to selected exposure factors. In addition, the recently-published book, Automating the Analysis of Spatial Grids by NSSL’s Dr. Lakshmanan, was available for viewing at the booth.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=174http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=174Fri, 26 Oct 12 00:00:00 -0500Researchers with the Coastal and Inland Flooding Observation and Warning (CI-FLOW) project are preparing for Hurricane Sandy to test their total water level system in North Carolina this weekend. The CI-FLOW system captures the complex interaction between rainfall, river flows, waves, tides and storm surge, and how they impact water levels in the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse Rivers and the Pamlico Sound in North Carolina.

CI-FLOW collects data from a computing system that combines radar and rain gauge information to create estimates of rainfall. This information is passed on to water quantity models that simulate freshwater flows from the headwaters of the basins into the rivers; taking into account soil type, slope of the land and vegetation patterns. Finally, water flow data is passed from river models to a coastal circulation and storm surge model that provides simulations of waves, tides and storm surge.

National Weather Service forecasters will have access to CI-FLOW during Hurricane Sandy to help them evaluate the system for application in the flood and flash flood warning process.

The CI-FLOW project is motivated by NOAA’s critical forecast need for detailed water level predictions in coastal areas and has a vision to transition CI-FLOW research findings and technologies to other U.S. coastal watersheds.

The NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory with support from the NOAA National Sea Grant Office leads the unique interdisciplinary team including the North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas Sea Grant Programs, University of Oklahoma, Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Seahorse Consulting, NWS Forecast Offices in Raleigh, and Newport/Morehead City, NWS Southeast River Forecast Center, NOAA’s Coastal Services Center, NOAA in the Carolinas, NOAA Southeast and Caribbean Regional Team (SECART), NOAA-Integrated Ocean Observing System, Department of Homeland Security, Center of Excellence-Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management, Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence SouthEast, Coast Survey Development Laboratory and NWS Office of Hydrologic Development.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=173http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=173Wed, 24 Oct 12 00:00:00 -0500Springer has just published a book written by NSSL/CIMMS scientist Valliappa Lakshmanan: “Automating the Analysis of Spatial Grids - A Practical Guide to Data Mining Geospatial Images for Human and Environmental Applications.”

Lakshmanan used the techniques described in the book as the basis for several valuable NSSL applications including the Warning Decision Support System: Integrated Information and NSSL: On Demand.

The book is based on a course Lakshmanan taught in Spring 2011 at the University of Oklahoma.

Here is an excerpt from the preface:

“The ability to create automated algorithms to process gridded spatial data is increasingly important as remotely sensed data sets increase in volume and frequency. Whether in business, social science, ecology, meteorology or urban planning, it has become critical to analyze and detect patterns in geospatial data and to do so with minimal human intervention. My aim with this book is to provide readers with a foundation in topics of digital image processing and data mining as applied to geospatial data sets. The aim is for readers to be able to devise and implement automated techniques to extract information from spatial grids such as radar, satellite, or high-resolution survey imagery.”

http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-94-007-4074-7/#section=1083839&page=4&locus=63

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=172http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=172Mon, 22 Oct 12 00:00:00 -0500The free, public and very popular National Weather Festival will be held Saturday, November 3 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the National Weather Center. More than 4,500 people attended the event in 2011.

The unique event features hourly weather balloon launches, children’s activities, storm research vehicle displays, amateur radio demonstrations and weather related information and products.

Visitors will be allowed to tour some areas of the National Weather Center's premier facilities, including National Weather Service Forecast operations areas. Oklahoma-based emergency response organizations will display vehicles and equipment used to respond to disasters such as tornadoes and wildfires.

About 50 storm chasing vehicles have been entered in the Storm Chaser Car Show to be eligible for prizes in four divisions: Storm Spotter, Student/Researcher, Professional, and TV Chaser.

NOAA Weather Partners and the University of Oklahoma host the National Weather Festival. Sponsors of the event include the Norman Chamber of Commerce with support from dozens of local weather and business organizations.

National Weather Festival Website

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=171http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=171Thu, 18 Oct 12 00:00:00 -0500A NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) scientist is leading an experiment to collect a comprehensive dataset on vertical turbulence and thermodynamic profiles in a portion of the lower atmosphere known as the boundary layer. A number of instruments deployed in north central Oklahoma will collect data for six weeks during the Lower Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment (LABLE).

The unique dataset will help researchers understand turbulent processes and thus improve our ability to reproduce turbulence more accurately in numerical weather models that attempt to simulate the atmosphere.

Turbulence redistributes energy and mass in the atmosphere, and can be influenced by different surface types, horizontal wind speed and direction, and the vertical temperature structure of the atmosphere. However, there have been relatively few studies that have investigated how the vertical turbulence profile changes over short horizontal distances due to these variables. Data collected during LABLE will also be used to derive water vapor fluxes at the top of the boundary layer, and to compare vertical motions observed by different instruments.

LABLE leverages the strong observing infrastructure currently available from the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in north-central Oklahoma. In addition to the instruments already in place at SGP, NSSL and scientists from the University of Oklahoma deployed two Doppler lidars, a sodar, and a laser scintillometer to measure turbulence, winds, thermodynamic structure and other microphysical properties.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=160http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=160Tue, 25 Sep 12 00:00:00 -0500An NSSL microphysics scheme that will help forecast six different types of precipitation more accurately was included in the most recent update of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model is used by operational meteorologists and refined by atmospheric researchers to help forecast thunderstorms and other smaller scale weather with greater realism.

The NSSL scheme predicts the development of water and ice particles in clouds. Like other schemes, it categorizes particles into broad classes of liquid (small cloud droplets or larger rain drops) and ice (small crystals, snow particles, graupel, and hail). Both the amount of mass and the number of particles are tracked, so that the average particle size is predicted. The new NSSL scheme adds a prediction of graupel particle density.

Graupel is a type of ice particle that has a lot of small water drops frozen onto it (rime ice), and can vary in widely in density. Graupel that starts as a freezing rain drop will have higher density than graupel that starts as a rimed ice crystal. Typical schemes have a constant density for graupel and a constant fall speed relationship. Predicting the density, however, allows a much greater range of fall speeds and can result in a more realistic distribution of graupel in a storm. This then affects where the rain (melted graupel) falls to ground, and the melting and evaporation cool the air. The cold air outflow is important for storm motion, longevity, and even severity.

NSSL’s Ted Mansell was instrumental in getting the scheme into NCAR WRF and plans to test it in the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed during the 2013 Spring Experiment.

Addition to weather model helps forecast precip types more accurately

An NSSL microphysics scheme that will help forecast six different types of precipitation more accurately was included in the most recent update of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model is used by operational meteorologists and refined by atmospheric researchers to help forecast thunderstorms and other smaller scale weather with greater realism.

The NSSL scheme predicts the development of water and ice particles in clouds. Like other schemes, it categorizes particles into broad classes of liquid (small cloud droplets or larger rain drops) and ice (small crystals, snow particles, graupel, and hail). Both the amount of mass and the number of particles are tracked, so that the average particle size is predicted. The new NSSL scheme adds a prediction of graupel particle density.

Graupel is a type of ice particle that has a lot of small water drops frozen onto it (rime ice), and can vary in widely in density. Graupel that starts as a freezing rain drop will have higher density than graupel that starts as a rimed ice crystal. Typical schemes have a constant density for graupel and a constant fall speed relationship. Predicting the density, however, allows a much greater range of fall speeds and can result in a more realistic distribution of graupel in a storm. This then affects where the rain (melted graupel) falls to ground, and the melting and evaporation cool the air. The cold air outflow is important for storm motion, longevity, and even severity.

NSSL’s Ted Mansell was instrumental in getting the scheme into NCAR WRF and plans to test it in the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed during the 2013 Spring Experiment.

Addition to weather model helps forecast precip types more accurately

An NSSL microphysics scheme that will help forecast six different types of precipitation more accurately was included in the most recent update of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model is used by operational meteorologists and refined by atmospheric researchers to help forecast thunderstorms and other smaller scale weather with greater realism.

The NSSL scheme predicts the development of water and ice particles in clouds. Like other schemes, it categorizes particles into broad classes of liquid (small cloud droplets or larger rain drops) and ice (small crystals, snow particles, graupel, and hail). Both the amount of mass and the number of particles are tracked, so that the average particle size is predicted. The new NSSL scheme adds a prediction of graupel particle density.

Graupel is a type of ice particle that has a lot of small water drops frozen onto it (rime ice), and can vary in widely in density. Graupel that starts as a freezing rain drop will have higher density than graupel that starts as a rimed ice crystal. Typical schemes have a constant density for graupel and a constant fall speed relationship. Predicting the density, however, allows a much greater range of fall speeds and can result in a more realistic distribution of graupel in a storm. This then affects where the rain (melted graupel) falls to ground, and the melting and evaporation cool the air. The cold air outflow is important for storm motion, longevity, and even severity.

NSSL’s Ted Mansell was instrumental in getting the scheme into NCAR WRF and plans to test it in the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed during the 2013 Spring Experiment.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=159http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=159Wed, 12 Sep 12 00:00:00 -0500NOAA, NASA and the University of Connecticut are representing the United States in the Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX), the largest weather field research project in European history.

HyMex is a 10-year international effort to better understand, quantify and model the hydrologic cycle in support of improved forecasts and warnings of flash floods in the Mediterranean region.

The project targets central Italy, southern France, the Balearic Islands, Corsica and northern Italy — all areas particularly susceptible to devastating flash flood events. Improved understanding of the land, atmosphere and ocean interactions that contribute to flash flooding in this part of the world will advance the state of the science that will ultimately be represented in forecast models with application in the United States.

NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) researchers will operate a mobile radar, NOAA – XPol (NOXP), in southeast France from Sept. 10 to Nov. 10. This is the first of several special observation periods during the HyMeX 10-year timeframe. Additionally, NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service is sponsoring scientists from New Mexico Tech to operate and evaluate a Lightning Mapping Array during HyMeX to support product development and validation for the future Geostationary Lightning Mapper on NOAA’s GOES-R satellite, which is scheduled to launch in late 2015.

The radar will provide high-resolution data and low altitude scans to help determine the size of the raindrops, the intensity of rainfall, and rainfall rates to help predict flash flooding conditions in the Cévennes Vivarais region of France.

During autumn, onshore moisture from the Mediterranean Sea encounters the 5,000-feet high Cévennes Mountains in southeast France making numerous towns and villages particularly subject to severe flash flood events.

Over the next three months, NSSL researcher will operate the NOAA-XPol mobile radar in southeast France as part of the HyMeX experiment, the largest weather field research project in European history.

“Data collected in the air, at sea and on land will shed light on how catastrophic flash-flooding events begin, which may help local officials better prepare for and respond to these types of emergencies,” said Jonathan Gourley, Ph.D., an NSSL research hydrologist.

Other sensors include three instrumented research aircraft, three research ships, buoys, ocean sensors, additional mobile precipitation radars, cloud radars and microradars, hundreds of rain gauges, ten disdrometers (to measure size and speed of individual raindrops), a dozen lidars, sonar, instrumented balloons, wind profilers, and a lightning mapping array.

NSSL’s participation in HyMeX is sponsored by MétéoFrance, and operations are coordinated with the Cévennes-Vivarais Mediterranean Hydro-Meteorological Observatory, The University of Grenoble, NASA, University of Connecticut and Cemagraf.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=158http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=158Fri, 17 Aug 12 00:00:00 -0500As storms moved across Oklahoma yesterday, the GOES-14 satellite, Multi-function Phased Array Radar (MPAR) and the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array (OK-LMA) coordinated data collection for the first time as part of the Super Rapid Scan Experiment.

The goal of the project is to evaluate the potential of these combined observations for forecasting and warning of severe storms.

The GOES-14 satellite has been taken out of storage (currently in orbit over the equator at 105 degrees west) to collect 1-minute satellite imagery over target areas when storms are expected. When thunderstorms move through Oklahoma, MPAR will also scan these storms at a rate of 1-minute or less. The LMA’s will map the location and development of lightning channel segments over the same areas.

The first of the next generation of geostationary satellites (GOES-R), scheduled to be launched in late 2015, will be able to routinely scan at 1-minute frequency with increased spectral and spatial resolution. It will also carry an optical lightning detection system (Geostationary Lightning Mapper) to measure total lightning (in-cloud and cloud-to ground) with high temporal and spatial resolution. The LMA measurements during these tests will be used to help assess the impact of the satellite-based lightning data when it becomes available with GOES-R.

The experiment runs from August 16, 2012 through about October 31, 2012 and is a coordinated effort between NSSL and the NESDIS Office of Satellite and Product Operations, and the NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) Advanced Satellite Products Branch in Madison, WI, and the GOES-R program office.

Real-time satellite imagery is being made available on the Web and on workstations (N-AWIPS) at the SPC:

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/srsor/GOES-14_SRSOR.html

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~rabin/goes14/loop_srso.html

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=157http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=157Wed, 01 Aug 12 00:00:00 -0500A group of researchers, including NSSL’s Dave Stensrud, recently announced they plan to study the effects of cities on thunderstorms. Looking at a number of different U.S. cities, the project hopes to clarify how urban pollution, canopy, and surrounding landscape influences the intensity and track of an approaching thunderstorm.

Stensrud is a principal investigator on the three-year $1.5 million NASA grant.

Researchers will use data from the space-borne MODIS sensors on NASA satellites to look at city shape and size, as well as pollution and other aerosols, for selected cities in the Great Plains. These measurements, along with geographic data of the urban canopy and the vegetation of surrounding rural areas, will be combined with archived radar data of storms in high-resolution computer simulations.

“We are going to set up and run the model many times but with different variables; city or no city, pollution or vegetation,” Stensrud said. “From this we hope to learn what size a city needs to be to have an impact on a storm.”

The information will be valuable for city and regional planners, as well as agricultural producers in surrounding areas.

The team includes weather computer modelers, radar meteorologists, landscape architects, atmospheric chemists and geographers from NSSL, South Dakota State University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Michigan, Columbia University and the University of Minnesota.

]]>http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=156http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/news/hotitems/display.php?id=156 (CIMMS) researchers donated their time this summer to mentor undergraduate
students through research projects.]]>Fri, 27 Jul 12 00:00:00 -0500NSSL and NSSL/Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) researchers donated their time this summer to mentor undergraduate students through research projects.

The students were selected through the prestigious NOAA Hollings Scholars program and the National Weather Center Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NWC REU). Both programs are designed to encourage students to pursue a future career in atmospheric science research through mentoring, tours, lectures and field trips.

NOAA Hollings Scholars and NWC REU programs support NOAA Education goals to develop a future workforce skilled in disciplines critical to NOAA’s mission.

The students are presenting the results of their research projects this week.

Hannah Huelsing (University of Northern Colorado) - REU - “Evaluation of Precipitation Diurnal Variability by TRMM: Case of Pakistan's 2010 Intense Monsoon”
Mentors: Dr. Yang Hong, Dr. Sadiq Kahn, Dr. Jonathan Gourley (NSSL) and Nicole Grams

Veronica Fall (Valparaiso University) - REU - “Intercomparison of Vertical Structure of Storms Revealed by Ground-based (NMQ) and Spaceborne Radars (CloudSat-CPR and TRMM-PR)”
Mentors: Dr. Yang Hong, Dr. Qing Cao, Dr. Jonathan Gourley( NSSL) and Nicole Grams

Jonathan Labriola (University of Miami) - REU - “Investigating the Relationship of Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor Parameters to Tornado Intensity”
Mentors: Kiel Ortega (CIMMS), Darrel Kingfield (CIMMS) and Madison Miller (NSSL)

Hope Weldon (Jackson State University) - REU - “Toward a Better Understanding of Tornado Fatalities”
Mentors: Greg Carbin and Dr. Harold Brooks (NSSL)

Phillip Ware (Jackson State University) - REU - “Evaluation of a Lightning Jump Algorithm with High Resolution Storm Reports”
Mentors: Dr. Kristin Calhoun (CIMMS), Kiel Ortega (CIMMS) and Greg Stumpf (NWS MDL)

Nathan Korfe (St. Cloud State University) - REU - “Sensitivity of Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Schemes on Forecasting Blizzard Conditions for the 11–12 December 2010 Snowstorm”
Mentors: Dr. Heather Reeves (CIMMS) and Dr. Adam Clark (CIMMS)


Lindsay Blank (Millersville University) - Hollings - "On the Predictability of Thunderstorms over the Southwestern United States"
Mentor: Dr. David Stensrud (NSSL)

Rebecca Steeves (North Carolina State University) - REU - “A Comparison of Mesoscale Analysis Systems Used for Severe Weather Forecasting”
Mentors: Dr. Dustan Wheatley (CIMMS) and Dr. Michael Coniglio (NSSL)

Matthew Vaughan (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) - Hollings - “The Analyses and Prediction of a Supercell Storm from Assimilating Radar and Satellite Observations using EnKF”
Mentors: Dr. Nusrat Yussouf (CIMMS) and Dr. Thomas Jones (CIMMS)

Burkely Twiest (Penn State University) - Hollings - “Localizing Tornado Climatology in the Contiguous United States: An Environmental Parameter and Convective Mode Focus.”
Mentors: Bryan Smith, Rich Thompson, Andy Dean, Dr. Chris Melick, Dr. Harold Brooks (NSSL), and Patrick Marsh (CIMMS)

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