{"id":841,"date":"2010-11-18T12:45:15","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T17:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/?p=841"},"modified":"2010-11-18T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T17:45:15","slug":"tornadoes-producing-damage-on-the-ground-detectible-by-dual-polarization-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/2010\/11\/tornadoes-producing-damage-on-the-ground-detectible-by-dual-polarization-radar\/","title":{"rendered":"Tornadoes producing damage on the ground detectible by dual-polarization radar"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_842\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-842\" style=\"width: 316px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-842\" href=\"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/2010\/11\/tornadoes-producing-damage-on-the-ground-detectible-by-dual-polarization-radar\/dual-pol-debris-copy\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-842\" title=\"Dual-pol.debris copy\" src=\"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2010\/11\/Dual-pol.debris-copy-316x209.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"316\" height=\"209\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-842\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dual-polarization technology can help detect debris from a damaging tornado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Recent analysis of data from NOAA NSSL\u2019s prototype dual-polarization radar during a significant tornado outbreak in central Oklahoma this past spring showed debris from a damaging tornado.\u00a0 This critical information can help a forecaster confirm the presence of a rain-wrapped tornado, or a tornado at night causing damage on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Current NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) radars send a horizontal electromagnetic wave field into the sky.\u00a0 When the wave field bounces off an object in its path, it is reflected back to the radar and gives a measurement of the horizontal size of that object.\u00a0 Dual-polarization radar sends both horizontal and vertical electromagnetic wave fields, giving a forecaster a measure of the size <em>and<\/em> shape of the object. \u00a0Combining and comparing these measurements can categorize rain, hail, snow, birds, insects, and tornado debris.\u00a0 All NOAA National Weather Service radars will be upgraded with dual-polarization technology beginning in late 2010.<\/p>\n<p>NSSL researchers studying the tornado outbreak confirmed four rotation signatures in the radar velocity data. \u00a0Tornado warnings had been issued based on this information.\u00a0 However, these measurements cannot confirm tornadoes are causing damage on the ground because the radar beam is above ground level.<\/p>\n<p>NSSL research showed dual-polarization radar data identifies debris signatures differently from radar echoes.\u00a0 \u00a0Leaves, shingles or insulation are randomly oriented, while precipitation echoes behave fairly predictably.<\/p>\n<p>Tornado debris signatures were identified by researchers in the dual-polarized data from the May 10, 2010 outbreak indicating a rain-wrapped tornado was producing damage on the ground.\u00a0 This tornado killed two people.<\/p>\n<p>NSSL developed, tested and evaluated dual-polarization technology over the past 25 years, culminating in a demonstration project that convinced the NWS to upgrade all their radars with this technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent analysis of data from NOAA NSSL\u2019s prototype dual-polarization radar during a significant tornado outbreak in central Oklahoma this past spring showed debris from a damaging tornado.\u00a0 This critical information can help a forecaster confirm\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[109,182,241,400,469,543],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-radar","category-research-news","tag-dual-pol","tag-hot-items","tag-issue-octobernovember-2010","tag-radar","tag-technology","tag-zrnic"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.nssl.noaa.gov\/nsslnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}