Rocket Man is Back

[Jeff Wright]

Here is an idea. Have the SOFIA flying telescope "film" a supercell with that huge optical package.

Maybe another internet billionaire will buy Stratolaunch.

 

[rdale]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/06/06/storm-chaser-reed-timmer-successfully-shot-rocket-into-wedge-tornado-data-he-says-is-incredible/?utm_term=.8bfd59392017

 

[Jacob Parrish]

He tweeted his preliminary data from the rocket launch today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1137163640035979266

 

[John Bowles]

I'd be surprised if they got much useful data out of that. You can't make quality thermometers and hygrometers that small. Also, how do you measure the wind? The damn thing is a rocket...self-propelled...aerodynamic...it's not going to measure winds with any semblance of accuracy. About the best thing they could do is make it act like a trajectory tracer after the engine cut-off, but if the thing got to 34,000 feet, then it is not in the tornado for sure.

Its a model rocket you can buy at walmart. It's self propelled for about 2 seconds, after that it's just being carried by the winds. There's no reason it wouldn't be fairly accurate. Once the parachute is out its going to match the wind speed within a few seconds.

 

[William Spencer]

Returning to this thread, the data from this rocket probe deployment was officially published the Journal of Atmospheric Measurement Techniques and can be found here.