Mobile sounding measurements of the near storm environment during VORTEX2

The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment-2 (VORTEX2) is the largest and most sophisticated field program ever targeted at understanding tornadoes. The field phases of VORTEX2 in May/June of 2009 and 2010 include a wide variety of fully mobile instruments, deployed in a coordinated fashion day by day throughout the Great Plains. Among others, the chief scientific goals of the experiment include advancing our knowledge of the relationships between supercell thunderstorms and their environments. Toward this end, we will present a preliminary analysis of the rawinsonde data collected from four mobile soundings units during VORTEX2. The poster presentation will include the distribution of storm-relative balloon launch positions, analysis of representative sonde measurements for several tornadic and non-tornadic storms, and a review of any unique soundings that have been collected.