- Tornado chasing in Wyoming.
This summer, tiny Chugwater, Wyoming, became a dream getaway for three UMass Amherst scientists. Professor Stephen Frasier, head of the microwave sensing lab, and graduate students Vijay Venkatesh and Krzysztof Orzel were there to witness and record a 25-minute tornado on June 5. The team placed two radars on the twister. “We got to collect data right through the lifecycle of a tornado on the ground,” says Venkatesh. “Although it was visually spectacular, our primary motivation was to get a good data set and we did.” The hunt, composed of 120 researchers in more than 40 chase vehicles, was the largest and most sophisticated attempt ever to explore the origin, structure, and evolution of tornadoes. Primary goals of the project are to improve warning time, now 14 minutes, and reduce the high false alarm rate of more than 80 percent. The team is analyzing the data and improving radar operations in anticipation of phase two, beginning next May.
