The topic of my research was the severe thunderstorm updraft and how it correlates to tornado intensity. The title of my research was Correlations between updraft strength and tornado intensity using Gibson Ridge Level 2 Analyst Edition software.
The abstract is as follows:
The updraft is the most important determinant of the strength of the severe thunderstorm, and determining its strength is vital to estimate the strength of the storm itself. For this study, Gibson Ridge Level 2 Analyst Edition radar software was used to imply the strength of the updraft in 150 cases of severe weather and tornado activity. Using Gibson Ridge, several parameters were observed, such as 50 dBZ Height, Echo Top Height, Vertically Integrated Liquid, and Vertically Integrated Liquid Density. These parameters were then observed for the six different categories of tornado strength, by the Fujita Scale, and were observed to see how much they varied with different tornado intensities to imply the strength of the updraft.
I would like to thank Dr. Tsing-Chang Chen, from Iowa State University, and Mr. Karl Jungbluth, from the Des Moines National Weather Service, for their expertise in dynamical meteorology and radar meteorology, respectively. Also, I would like to thank Mr. Scott Lincoln for helping me to locate my radar cases used for this project.