VORTEX projects

VORTEX1

Project Vortex. The Dimmitt tornado. National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
Date	1994 and 1995
Location	Tornado Alley
Also known as	Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 1
Outcome	Documented an entire tornado, which, in conjunction with deployment of the NEXRAD system, helped the NWS to provide severe weather warnings with a thirteen-minute lead time, and reduce false alarms by ten percent.
Website	http://vortex2.org/

The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment or VORTEX are field projects that study tornadoes. VORTEX1 was the first time scientists completely researched the entire evolution of a tornado with an array of instrumentation, enabling a greater understanding of the processes involved with tornadogenesis. A violent tornado near Union City, Oklahoma was documented in its entirety by chasers of the Tornado Intercept Project (TIP) in 1973 and visual observations led to advancement in understanding of tornado structure and life cycles. VORTEX2 utilized enhanced technology allowing scientists to improve forecasting capabilities to improve advanced warnings to residents. VORTEX2 is seeking to explain how tornadoes form, how long they last and why they last that long, and what causes them to dissipate.

The field research phase of the VORTEX2 project concluded on July 6, 2010.

The VORTEX1 project sought to understand how a tornado is produced by deploying around 18 vehicles that were equipped with customized instruments used to measure and analyze the weather around a tornado. The project has also stated that it is interested in why some supercells, or mesocyclones within such storms, produce tornadoes while others do not. It also concerned itself with why some supercells form violent tornadoes versus weak tornadoes.

The original project took place in 1994 and 1995, while several smaller studies, such as SUB-VORTEX and VORTEX-99, were conducted from 1996 to 2008. VORTEX1 documented the entire life cycle of a tornado for the first time. Severe weather warnings improved after the research collected from VORTEX1 and many believe that VORTEX1 contributed to this improvement. “An important finding from the original VORTEX experiment was that the factors responsible for causing tornadoes happen on smaller time and space scales than scientists had thought. New advances will allow for a more detailed sampling of a storm’s wind, temperature and moisture environment and lead to a better understanding of why tornadoes form –-and how they can be more accurately predicted,” said Stephan Nelson, NSF program director for physical and dynamic meteorology.

VORTEX had the capability to fly Doppler weather radar above the tornado approximately every five minutes.