• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

PHOTEX

Aaron Kennedy

EF5
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
1,526
Location
Grand Forks, ND
I wanted to give all of you a heads up of a small storm intecept project I'm participating in this Spring: PHOTEX

Photogrammetric Observation of Thunderstorms Experiment

Led by my advisors, we are using two mini-dv camcorders with digital compasses to "map" the back of the supercell. Why you ask?

Well, we simply don't know how the 3D visualization of radar data from supercells matches up with what you see in real life... especially in the rear-flank. Whether the reflectivity (precipitation) descends within or outside of the cloud plays an important role in the thermodynamic environment of the RFD/DRC.

For more on the study, check out our page at:

http://hal9000.metr.ou.edu/PHOTEX

The site is rather small, but contains the purpose statement, goals, and operation plan.

As well as Drs. Straka and Rasmussen (my advisors), a couple of other chasers (James Ladue and Micheal Magsig) will be doing the same tasks on the inflow side of the storm.

Aaron
 
Even with my poor education in storm theory, I will be looking forward to viewing a season's worth of data from this excellent idea---perhaps because I've spent so much time trailing storms and trying to decide how much effort should be put into closing with them...

When I was in Air Force photo intelligence, we used photogrammetric techniques for measuring movement and mass of potential targets in RVN---lots of hours spent poring over images on light tables, grateful for parallax provided by 9x18-inch spilt vertical cams and overlapping shots. I wonder if your positions will be close enough on any storms to provide such a stereo view...

Regardless, it will be wonderful to have more documented visual clues for the rear flank. Wishing all of you good luck with this project.
 
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