SURROUNDING THE STORM: The Vortex2 experiment involves dozens of scientists driving trucks and chasing tornadoes in an attempt to literally surround the storm with observing instruments.
Image: Christie Nicholson
-
Gravity's Engines
We’ve long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they...
Read More »
On May 1, more than 100 scientists will head out to the Midwest for the second part of VORTEX2, the most ambitious study of tornadoes in history. They plan to hunt down and literally surround twisters with a fleet of mobile radars, weather balloons, and ground instruments. This is VORTEX2’s second and final season and the hope is to better understand how and when a tornado will form.
Last May, Scientific American chased the VORTEX2 armada during their migration across the Great Plains. Watch in this exclusive video the results of that mission and how this scientific army finally caught their perfect storm.
See what we're tweeting about
9 Comments
Add CommentPlease move on up and start using HTML5/H.264 for your videos, so we can *all* watch them....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat's the matter - no flash on your iPad? ;)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr, how about you purchase hardware that actually works with web standards and not expect the entire internet to adapt to you and your new toy? I hate Apple fanatics almost as much as I hate religious fanatics... Hey, fanboy... read this: http://bit.ly/8XM7e1
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMichael - you need to calm yourself and disprove the obvious conclusion of your hyperactivity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Tornado Surrounded by Instruments... "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy? Humans know enought about torndaos to predict their time-of-year presence and track their formation and likely travel direction. A more reality-based expendiure of the taxpayers money would be construction of "root celllars" - underground refuge - to which folks caught in the path of tornados could retrieve on short notice. Me thinks we foreget our history of how humans coped with tornadoes in the recent past. Perhaps the reality is that tornado "research" generates taxpayer funded research however history "tells us" all we need to know in coping with rorandeos.
"Tornado Surrounded by Instruments... "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy? Humans know enough about tornadoes to predict their time-of-year presence and track in real-time their formation and likely travel direction. A more reality-based expenditure of limited taxpayer money would be to fund construction of "root cellars" - underground refuge - to which folks caught in the path of tornadoes could seek refuge on short time notification. We seem to have forgotten the recent past in which humans coped with tornadoes.
tarwater...how about requiring new structures to be wind proof...make them out of cement and rebar not wood....this applies to florida(me) and other huricane prone states too....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy not just have a section inside of all structures that is reinforced to survive a tornado,it would be alot cheaper?Of course this applies to existing buildings.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there any news on the final stage of VORTEX2?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also wonder if anyone has any information on the role of magnetic fields in these phenomenon, if any.
This article has been linked in the SEC thread at Sapo's Joint.
http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=28249#p28249
Any input would be welcome.