Vortex 2 2009 Retrospetive Part 1 (WARNING! Lots of LARGE photos -- 56K warning!)

[Ryan McGinnis]

I was about 15 years old when the first Project Vortex came around. I remember reading all that I could about it; I remember watching the NOVA show based around it and being awestruck at the work these scientists were doing. So this year, when I got a chance to document Vortex The Sequel, I felt like a bit like a 15 year old again -- a 15 year old who'd just been given a 2 week long pass to wander around the infield of Wrigley and hang out in the dugout while the Cubs played.

I have somewhere between a bajillion and a brazillian photos of Vortex 2, so I'm going to post some of my favorites here. I found the entire operation to be not only visually compelling, but a compelling human drama, on top of it all. Long stretches of monotony and grinding travel punctuated by a sparse few hours of anxiety, focus, elation, and relief.

I've noticed on some of the social networks that a number of chasers have a lot of pictures of Vortex 2 in action -- but I haven't seen many posted to Stormtrack. So if you got 'em and you wanna show 'em, by all means, post 'em!

I am breaking this up into multiple posts due to the volume of imagery. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. I know it's a lot of postin' for one topic, but I really think Vortex 2 is big enough in chaser history to warrant it. Heck, if V2 can't merit three posts on Stormtrack, where can it?

Without further ado:



Ronan Nagle shows off the new and improved TIV 2 in Grand Island, Nebraska.



David Dowell giving the morning brief in Grand Island, Nebraska.



Justin Walker does a little preventative maintenance on some tornado pods. As the name would suggest, these pods are designed to dropped in the path of a tornado.



In Hays, Kansas, NOAA's mobile mesonet vans all parked next to each other. That's a lotta kit atop those roofs.



DOW 6 deploys on a pretty crummy storm at sunset near Imogene, Iowa. By this point in the season, they were chasing pretty much any kind of convection they could find. The ginormous antenna atop the DOW is new this year -- not only is it a very high-based weather station, but it's a mobile repeater for the HAM frequencies that Vortex 2 uses.



One of the Discovery Channel videographers stands atop the hood of the TIV2 for a shot. There was quite a bit of media following V2 around at different times, though probably not as much as I would have expected. Between Casey's IMAX team, the Discovery Channel, the Weather Channel, all the chasers with cams, I seriously doubt there was a second of active operations that went unfilmed.



Case in point. BTW, this was one of the friendliest cameramen I've ever met. He was shooting for Storm Chasers.



I like this shot of Sean Casey atop his TIV2. However, I felt like a bit of a jackass right after I shot this. You'll notice that they're filming, and you'll also notice that I used a fill-flash... whoops! Bad photographer's etiquette.



Charity Bidegain, one of the IMAX videographers, checks over the IMAX cam as the crew talks in the background. This was at a truckstop in York, Nebraska. The crew tends to try to park as farrrr back into the truckstop area as possible to avoid drawing a crowd that would slow things down.



Bryan Draper sits inside the TIV2. This lens makes it look spacious, but the inside of the TIV2 reminds me of a WWII diesel submarine. Cramped, full of stuff, exposed metal everywhere.


End Part 1
Continue to Part 2

 

[Jason Foster]

Cool stuff Ryan...certainly seems like this was fun to be around the Discovery crew and the research group. Have to tell us more on that side of things.

But yes...I'm surprised (now that you mention it) that not many photos of the expedition have been posted here. Perhaps many chasers were chasing away from the V2 group.

BTW...I might like to see some of the "Brazillian" photos...oh wait....I don't think that's what you meant....

One point of clarification though...TIV/DOW don't actually use the ham frequencies. They have a special FCC permit with ham radio like call signs. I know I posted this somewhere, I'll see if I can find the specifics. They don't use ham radio directly because of the commercial nature of the group.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Thanks, Jason! Feel free to ask away if you have any questions about the crews.

You're right about the radio freqs -- I incorrectly called them "Ham". I'm not a ham operator and so I don't know much about ham freqs and assumed that any radio transmissions in those freq ranges were considered ham. Actually, a couple of the freqs they have licensed overlap with one of the licensed bands of the railroad operators and they're required to not operate (or switch to a different freq) if they hear any of that railroad traffic. The first time this happened (years ago), they were a bit perplexed and unsure what to do, since they were legally licensing the spectrum. Someone made the joke "Oh no! The radio police are going to show up!". Weeks later, the radio police showed up -- for reals. The FCC, driving around in a big white van, somehow hunted them down on the plains and had a chat about who had priority on freqs that are licensed to more than one user; apparently, CSWR was beneath railroads in the pecking order, as munged up railroad communications is akin to knocking out air traffic control.

The story above is a bit of hearsay -- I didn't see it happen, I'm only relating a story I was told. But it made me chuckle nonetheless -- I've always wondered how good the FCC was at policing the spectrum. Apparently very good!