GR2AE Images of February 18 Supercell

[Bob Hartig]

The following are some images I captured of one of the February 18 supercells. I'm not sure of the exact location, but I believe this was one of the storms that blew through the Atlanta area. I may try to pin down which storm it was later, based on the time. For now, I can at least tell you that these images were taken between 4:37 and 4:46 CST, or 2237-2246 UTC.

These images show a distinct mesocyclone, but what I find particularly interesting is the echo hole arching up through the updraft tower. I'm not sure whether this is a BWER or something entirely different; I suspect the latter. In my admittedly limited experience with GR2AE, I don't recall seeing anything quite like it, so I thought I'd submit it and let more knowledgeable minds than mine determine whether it is in fact a point of real interest.

Wish I knew how to make these images bigger, because it's hard to pick out some features in the smaller format. In the fourth image, looking almost straight east at the backside of the storm, there's a small hole at the top of the mesocyclone pipe at the point where it bends to connect with the main tower. And in the second image, if you look closely, you can see out the hole (a different hole) through an opening to the black map background.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Verrrrrry interesting imagery, Bob. I don't know about the hole in the middle of the (what looks to be) 50 dBZ isosurface, but I think it's very peculiar how you can see that "stem" coming out of the back of the cell. Sure looks like one of Rasmussen's DRCs or just a mesocyclone/funnel itself. If you haven't done volumetric looks using velocity, you should. I bet it would show some even more interesting features in there.

For anyone who wants to look at this using GR2AE, you can still get archived data from the West Texas Mesonet up to a month after the fact http://mesonet.tamu.edu/products/RADAR/nexrad/CRAFT/. Might be worth checking out.

 

[Jason Foster]

I've also been meaning to work on a way to get the GR2AE images in a video...with motion and adjusting the color, and using the rotation feature. I think...although need to go back and double check, but this was done in the Storms of 2008.

I guess the only quick solution off the top of my head to set the screen at a higher resolution and do a frame grab/print screen type of thing. I'm sure other will have some suggestions.

Pretty cool images BTW. I so should have remembered to get some 3D of the hurricanes this past season