Extreme Tornado Tours!
Home
Aerial footage from the June 17 Nebraska tornadofest! PDF Print E-mail
News - Tornadoes
Written by Reed Timmer   
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 11:58
As mentioned in earlier blog entries, the TVN/Radiance Technologies team successfully launched the RC plane into the tornadic southern Nebraska atmosphere on June 17th. The video below shows the initial launch with a tornado in the background, and the RC plane deploying parachute probes into the inflow region of the storm.  Note the aerial shots of the parachute probe getting deployed out the rear, and sucked toward the tornado before wrapping around the backside! Each of these probes measures temperature, pressure, and dewpoint inside the tornado; one of the probes can even record HD video! The probes were recovered that night from a corn field. Each of the probes has GPS tracking ability and we plot their path and location in 3-D on Google Earth in the Radiance vehicle.  At the time of the video below, we were in the process of driving into theses same tornadoes (shown far away from the plane vehicle perspective) with the SRV Dominator, with the radar pointed in the vertical to measure the updraft winds while the roof-mounted anemometer measured winds in the horizontal. Be sure to watch Storm Chasers on Discovery this fall for the rest of the story!!  (Click on the "READ MORE" button, below, for the video!)

Digg! Reddit! Del.icio.us! Mixx! Free and Open Source Software News Google! Live! Facebook! StumbleUpon! Yahoo! Free Joomla PHP extensions, software, information and tutorials.
 
Discuss (9 posts)
Re:Aerial footage from the June 17 Nebraska tornadofest!
Jun 26 2009 15:04:50
Oh wow, that is amazingly COOL! For some reason, it didn't occur to me that "RC" meant "radio controlled". What an awesome way to get data! I'm amazed by how well they can fly that thing in those weather conditions. Great job, guys, and an incredibly innovative idea!
#15498
Re:Aerial footage from the June 17 Nebraska tornadofest!
Jun 26 2009 15:22:40
WOW Reed, you keep it up and you might have 5 post by the end of the year...lol.
#15500
Re:Aerial footage from the June 17 Nebraska tornadofest!
Jun 27 2009 23:24:30
That is some fantastic footage! I can't wait to see or hear about the data that you have collected. I know it will be of great importance. Thanks for all you do, and keep up the great work!!! Tammy
#15615
There are too many comments to list them all here. See the forum for the full discussion.
You need to login or register to post comments.
Discuss this item on the forums. (9 posts)

Please log in to post a comment.