EnKF and Polarimetric Analyses of the 31 May 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma Supercell during Tornadogenesis

This study assimilates rapid-scan Doppler radar to retrieve the three-dimensional wind and thermodynamic state of the 31 May 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma supercell.  Radial velocity data from the X-band, polarimetric, RaXPol mobile Doppler radar and NOAA’s National Weather Radar Testbed Phased-Array radar are assimilated using a Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) to produce analyses for a 20-min period centered on tornadogenesis.

Kinematic features in the LETKF analyses are compared with RaXPol polarimetric data to identify polarimetric representations of near-surface flow features in the El Reno supercell.