Reexamining the Vertical Development of Tornadic Vortex Signatures in Supercells

Abstract

Abstract Observations from a hybrid phased-array Doppler radar, the Mobile Weather Radar, 2005 X-band, Phased Array (MWR-05XP), were used to investigate the vertical development of tornadic vortex signatures (TVSs) during supercell tornadogenesis. Data with volumetric update times of ∼10 s, an order of magnitude better than that of most other mobile Doppler radars, were obtained up to storm midlevels during the formation of three tornadoes. It is found that TVSs formed upward with time during tornadogenesis for two cases. In a third case, missing low-level data prevented a complete time–height analysis of TVS development; however, TVS formation occurred first near the ground and then at storm midlevels several minutes later. These results are consistent with the small number of volumetric mobile Doppler radar tornadogenesis cases from the past ∼10 years, but counter to studies prior to that, in which a descending TVS was observed in roughly half of tornado cases utilizing Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) data. A comparative example is used to examine the possible effects relatively long WSR-88D volumetric update times have on determining the mode of tornadogenesis.