Mars

Mars has been in the news recently, that's because Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) safely landed! On top of all of the exciting instrumentation it carries with it to analyze rocks, it also carries a Spanish meteorological package. This is unlike the last two rovers which could only photograph the passing dust devils. Having a meteorological package on MSL is an exciting instrument to have aboard for a mars atmospheric scientist like myself.

Coincidentally, my research was recently featured on our local KVIA Channel 7 news. It provides a neat summary of what I am currently working on, and its implications. Below is the link to the article:

Link to KVIA article and TV segment.

Canadian Tornado

Observed a Canadian tornado! Observed this tornado today on my last tour of the year. The storm had produced multiple funnels before finally producing this tornado. We were at 51.2 degrees north!

The previous tour also observed a tornado in Colorado. Thus, closing out the season the tour's overall success rate remains at over 75%. This is more than 2X greater when compared against a University of Missouri survey of other tours.

Elizabeth CO, Tornado

Twister, a photo by peterspencer49 on Flickr.

We observed a tornado June 6th, 2012 near Elizabeth, CO. This was a photograph by one of my customers of the tornado. We were a ways out from the storm so that we could have a better view of the structure. The tornado however became visible as it moved out of the rain and hail.

Two More Photos

I want to share two more photos from April 14th. Again this was the storm that passed by Burdett, KS heading northeast. Recently found out the tornadoes we observed Saturday ranged from EF-1 to EF-3 in strength. The tornado photographed here fortunately weakened just before the town (i.e. why it was roping out) making it turn left and miss the town.

Time-lapse of Supercell

This is a time-lapse of a tornado warned (no tornado at the time) storm to the west of Wichita, KS. Notice the re-developing RFD (rear flank downdraft). It was a rather cold but strong inflow from our vantage point.

One more picture...

This was the ~third tornado we observed just as it was lifting.

Time-lapse of Supercell

This is a time-lapse of a supercell that was over southwest KS on April 14 2012. It is rather short, so it is played forward and backward a few times. Notice the rain & hail curtains wrapping around the circulation, and the well defined funnel. More time-lapse photography is in the pipeline, and will share it shortly on this blog.