Visualization Of An F3 Tornado Within A Supercell Thunderstorm Simulation

Scientists used pre-storm conditions from an observed F4 tornado in South Dakota in 2003 to initialize a simulation that produces a severe supercell storm that produces a powerful tornado and terabytes of data.

Data driven visualization components reveal the inner-workings of thesimulation. Interactively filtered streamtubes colored orange when risingand blue when sinking represent the path of air through the storm. A swirling mass of red spheres in the low pressure tornado vortex delineates the developing tornado.

On the ground plane, tilting cones represent wind speed and direction. Colored by temperature, they show a surface boundary where warm and cold air interact at the tornado's base.

This visualization represents one hour of storm evolution. Large scale thunderstorm simulations have only recently produced small scale tornadic features as seen here.

Science Director: Robert Wilhelmson
Scientific Simulation: Lou Wicker, NSSL; Matthew Gilmore, UIUC; Glen Romine, UIUC; Lee Cronce, Mark Straka
Music and Narration: Robert Patterson
Visualization by NCSA AVL: Donna Cox, Robert Patterson, Stuart Levy, Alex Betts, Matthew Hall, Lorne Leonard, Jeff Carpenter

source: http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu/Downloads.html

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tornado
• supercell

[jordan1tyler]

what program?

[djxatlanta]

@jordan1tyler - I believe Partiview or Virtual Director. Visit the NCSA Advanced Visualization Laboratory website for more details.

[anonymousstormchaser]

Amazing video!

[storm8956]

Thanks for uploading! That was a real treat to watch!