An Analysis of a Mesoscale Features during IOP 4C of the VORTEX-SE Field Campaign

IOP 4C took place on 30 April 2016 in Northern Alabama with the mobile assets deployed west of Huntsville, AL. During the IOP 6 supercells moved through the domain with several producing circulations including a tornado warned mesocyclone that passed near Athens, AL. These supercells were well sampled by a plethora of mobile ground based remote sensors including the UAH mobile Alabama X-band (MAX) dual polarization radar (with surface measurements), UMASS X-pol (X-band radar) , UAH mobile integrated profiling system (MIPS; X-band profiling radar (XPR), 915 MHz wind profiler, ceilometer, microwave profiling radiometer, surface instrumentation), UAH Rapid Deployable Atmospheric Profiling System (RaDAPS; 915 MHz wind profiler, microwave profiling radiometer), and UAH Mobile Doppler Lidar and Soundings system (MoDLS; Doppler Wind Lidar). Other mobile in-situ measurements included mobile sounding teams as well as Texas Tech StickNet. Stationary remote sensing included the Hytop WSR-88D radar (KHTX),  Advanced Radar for Meteorological and Operational Research (ARMOR; C-band) which is located at the Huntsville International Airport, OU Collaborative Lower Atmospheric Profiling System (CLAMPS; Doppler lidar, Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI), and microwave radiometer) located at the Bell Mina super site, and the UMASS FM-CW radar also located at the supersite. The UMASS X-pol was located in Courtland, AL while the UAH MAX was located in Tanner, AL allowing for dual Doppler coverage between the two mobile radars as well as with ARMOR. During this event supercells initiated in northwest Alabama north northeast of a QLCS that was propagating through central and southern Mississippi and Alabama. The supercells and QLCS were propagating with a 500 mb vorticity maxima that was moving across Mississippi and Alabama. The storms initiated in a strong shear and moderate cape environment with magnitudes of CAPE during this event being low to moderate with values around 1000 J/kg and Wind shear that was moderate to strong with values of at 0-6 km of 60-80 knots. This paper will investigate the initiation of the supercells as well as the tornado warned mesocyclone using a combination of in-situ and ground based remote sensed data. Single and Dual Doppler analysis will be performed to show the mesoscale processes that occurred during this IOP.