Preliminary Results from the 2018 National Robotics Initiative Field Project

This presentation will cover a unique field project, a collaborative effort of Texas Tech University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the the University of Colorado, designed to integrate radar observations and surface and airborne in situ measurements (via unmanned aircraft) to provide a comprehensive thermodynamic and kinematic depiction of supercell thunderstorms. This project, funded by the NSF National Robotics Initiative, was carried out over the Plains during a two-week stretch of late May and early June 2018.

Over the course of the project, measurements were made over seven separate case days, headlined by a fully integrated dataset on an HP supercell obtained on 8 Jun 2018 near Norris, SD. We will provide observations of this case as well as other more radar-specific endeavors earlier in the project, particularly of the 28 May event where two long-lived landspout tornadoes developed under the flanking line of a supercell southwest of Joes, CO.