Mobile Doppler-radar data collected during year 2 of VORTEX2: The U. Mass. X-Pol and W-band radars and the Naval Postgraduate School MWR-05XP/TWOLF

During year 2 of VORTEX2 the University of Oklahoma, in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts and the Naval Postgraduate School, fielded three different types of mobile Doppler radars and a pulsed Doppler lidar. The U. Mass. X-Pol radar collected volumetric, polarimetric data in supercells and was paired with other VORTEX2 X-band radars for dual-Doppler analysis, especially during tornadogenesis. The U. Mass. W-band radar was used to probe tornadoes and other vortices in the boundary layer with ultra-high spatial resolution. The Naval Postgraduate School MWR-05XP X-band, phased-array radar was used to obtain volumetric Doppler data in supercells, with an update time of 6 – 7 s, to document rapidly evolving features leading to tornadogenesis. Also mounted on the MWR-05XP was a pulsed Doppler lidar system to complement, in clear air, the data collected in precipitation by the MWR-05XP. Examples of data collected by the radars will be shown, including U. Mass. X-Pol data in a few tornadoes, U. Mass. W-band data in a tornado, and MWR-05XP data in a tornadic supercell. The analysis of data is ongoing for a number of case studies in collaboration with other investigators, a major objective of which is to understand tornadogenesis in supercells.