Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

An Automated Method for Depicting Mesocyclone Paths and Intensities

Madison L. Miller Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, and National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma

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Valliappa Lakshmanan Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, and National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma

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Travis M. Smith Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, and National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma

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Print Publication:
01 Jun 2013
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-12-00065.1
Page(s):
570–585
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Abstract

The location and intensity of mesocyclone circulations can be tracked in real time by accumulating azimuthal shear values over time at every location of a uniform spatial grid. Azimuthal shear at low (0–3 km AGL) and midlevels (3–6 km AGL) of the atmosphere is computed in a noise-tolerant manner by fitting the Doppler velocity observations in the neighborhood of a pulse volume to a plane and finding the slope of that plane. Rotation tracks created in this manner are contaminated by nonmeteorological signatures caused by poor velocity dealiasing, ground clutter, radar test patterns, and spurious shear values. To improve the quality of these fields for real-time use and for an accumulated multiyear climatology, new dealiasing strategies, data thresholding, and multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) techniques have been implemented. These techniques remove nearly all nonmeteorological contaminants, resulting in much clearer rotation tracks that appear to match mesocyclone paths and intensities closely.

Corresponding author address: Madison L. Miller, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, 120 David L. Boren Blvd., Norman, OK 73072. E-mail: madison.burnett@noaa.gov

Abstract

The location and intensity of mesocyclone circulations can be tracked in real time by accumulating azimuthal shear values over time at every location of a uniform spatial grid. Azimuthal shear at low (0–3 km AGL) and midlevels (3–6 km AGL) of the atmosphere is computed in a noise-tolerant manner by fitting the Doppler velocity observations in the neighborhood of a pulse volume to a plane and finding the slope of that plane. Rotation tracks created in this manner are contaminated by nonmeteorological signatures caused by poor velocity dealiasing, ground clutter, radar test patterns, and spurious shear values. To improve the quality of these fields for real-time use and for an accumulated multiyear climatology, new dealiasing strategies, data thresholding, and multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) techniques have been implemented. These techniques remove nearly all nonmeteorological contaminants, resulting in much clearer rotation tracks that appear to match mesocyclone paths and intensities closely.

Corresponding author address: Madison L. Miller, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, 120 David L. Boren Blvd., Norman, OK 73072. E-mail: madison.burnett@noaa.gov
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