Decoding the hidden sounds from Tornadoes

Abstract

Tornado Alley in the United States produces the largest tornadoes in the world, but the majority of tornado related deaths in the United States occur to the east of Tornado Alley. This is because that region has hilly terrain that limits the use of weather radar, which is responsible for the significant improvements in tornado warnings over the past 40 years. This is a growing problem as Tornado Alley appears to be shifting eastward. An alternative method is to use infrasound (sound at frequencies below human hearing) emitted during the formation and life of a tornado to improve warnings. The fluid mechanism(s) responsible for the sound needs to be identified to properly interpret the received signals. This presentation will report on recent laboratory experiments aimed at investigating potential fluid mechanisms as well as field observations with measurements from tornadoes. [This work was funded, in part, by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation under grant GBMF11559 (doi.org/10.37807/GBMF11559).]