Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells
Field Scientist (2019-2023)
My Role
- Assisted in development (hardware/software) and led deployment of a platform for mobile single- and dual-lidar observations near storms.
- Role included independent leadership, student mentoring, advising PI team, and coordinating mobile lidar deployments.
Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells (TORUS)
More than 50 researchers and students deployed a wide-ranging suite of instruments to collect data on supercell thunderstorms across the Great Plains during 2019, 2022 and 2023. The TORUS project, or Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells, aims at understanding the relationships between severe thunderstorms and tornado formation.
Multiple research teams followed severe thunderstorms to study how factors like wind speed, temperature, humidity and pressure may reveal the small-scale structures in a supercell storm and how it contributes to tornado formation. The goal is to use the data collected to improve conceptual models of supercell thunderstorms. Aims of the project include observing airstreams going into and out of the storms and how these relate to changes in storm behavior and tornado development.
Roughly a dozen radar, ballooning, unmanned aerial vehicle, and ground-based observations teams traveled into the storm, along with a team in the NOAA P-3 Hurricane Hunter flying just outside the storm, to provide a data-driven, multi-dimensional view of each storm system. The project covered an area of 367,000 square miles, stretching from North Dakota to Texas and Iowa to Wyoming and Colorado.
I led the inital development and deployment of the NSSL Doppler lidar truck (later upgraded to a more robust dual-lidar system). This work has led to the advanced analysis of supercell inflow, including the observation of coherent vertical vorticity structures known as “velocity worms” (Gebauer et al. 2025, in review).