High-Temporal-Resolution Observations from the 2017 Atmospheric Imaging Radar Field Campaign

The Atmospheric Imaging Radar (AIR) is a mobile, X-band, imaging radar that uses digital beamforming to collect simultaneous RHI scans while steering mechanically in azimuth to obtain high-temporal weather data. The AIR is capable of collecting 20º-by-170º sector volumes in under 10 seconds, which allows it to document rapidly changing storm features that would otherwise have been unresolved by traditional, pencil-beam radars. The datasets shown in this study are a subset of the deployments from the 2017 AIR field campaign and illustrate some of the possible future research and operations applications for imaging radars.

Three datasets are presented, including 7-second resolution volumetric data of a high-end EF-2 tornado that occurred on 16 May 2017 near Wheeler, Texas. This tornado was sampled as close as 10 km by the AIR and was approximately 1 km in diameter with maximum measured delta-v of ~90 m s^-1 during the 10-minute deployment. The second dataset presented is from a decaying tornado on 18 May 2017 near Waynoka, Oklahoma, that also includes an instance of failed cyclic tornadogenesis. The final dataset presented is of a weakly tornadic supercell on 10 May 2017 near Chattanooga, Oklahoma, which includes the entire lifecycle of a short-lived tornado.