Observations of Tornadogenesis using a mobile, phased-array, doppler radar

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Authors
Bluestein, Howard B.
French, Michael
Popstefanija, Ivan
Bluth, Robert
Knorr, Jeffrey
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2009
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Tornadoes and many severe convective storms evolve on very short time scales (~ 10 s), owing to very high horizontal wind speeds and vertical velocities. This paper documents the formation of a tornado in the U. S. using a mobile, rapidly scanning, Doppler radar. This radar, the MWR-05XP (Meteorological Weather Radar, 2005, X-band, Phased Array), electronically scans in elevation and azimuth over limited sectors, and mechanically in azimuth at high speed. While the radar scans electronically in elevation, the attitude of its beam is held nearly fixed in space because it electronically back scans in azimuth at the same rate as it mechanically scans. Back scanning in azimuth is accomplished by frequency hopping, while scanning in elevation is accomplished by changing the phase delay.
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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