High-Spatiotemporal Dual-Polarization Radar Observations for a Tornado Case in Korea

The first tornadic storm observations over South Korean peninsula made by the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) using a X- band dual-polarization radar on 10 June 2014. The tornado lasted for about 30 minutes, which took out about twenty greenhouses and injured several people. Dual-polarization radar observations can be used to distinguish tornadic debris, which is composed of irregular shaped and randomly orientated objects. In this paper, intriguing features of the tornado such as WEH, DRC, BWER, hook shaped echo, velocity couplet have described using the polarimetric variables such as reflectivity, Doppler velocity, differential reflectivity, and cross-correlation coefficient. The strong hook shaped echo and weak echo hole indicate the presence of the tornado associated with a mesocyclone. The low values of the Z_dr and ρ_hv illustrate the lofted tornadic debris signatures. The wind updraft detected from BWER and velocity couplet represents the transportation of the debris aloft. In addition, the tornado characteristics from the early stage, mature stage to dissipating stage have interpreted. Hail signatures are also characterized. Below figures are shown the vertical structure (RHI) of reflectivity, differential reflectivity, copolar correlation coefficient and Doppler velocity at 10:32 UTC with an azimuth of 306-125^o during mature stage of tornado.