Browsing by Author "Weinbeck, Stephen W."
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Item Development of the West Texas Mesonet and supporting instrumentation(2005-05) Weinbeck, Stephen W.; Peterson, Richard E.; Smith, Douglas; Chang, Chia-Bo; Mulligan, KevinIn the last several years, the Wind Science and Engineering Center (WISE) at Texas Tech University has acquired a collection of new atmospheric sensing platforms. The most important of these is the West Texas Mesonet, an array of 40 automated surface observation systems. The purpose of the Mesonet is the acquisition of high spatial and temporal measurements of the atmosphere in West Texas. This provides an order of magnitude increase in the spatial resolution of atmospheric phenomena. The primary focus of WISE research is to understand the surface layer effects of high wind events. The addition of the mesonet allows for substantially better understanding of the resolution of the environment in which these damaging windstorms form and propagate. Despite the improvement of the resolution of the atmosphere, many important physical processes in the storm environment cannot be resolved directly through mesonet observations. In order to provide the high spatial resolution that is necessary, additional observations need to be utilized in conjunction with the Mesonet. Short portable towers and mobile mesonet vehicles allow researchers to capture very high spatial and temporal scales in the atmosphere. To supplement the additional data density at the surface , there is a new WISE boundary layer tower at the Reese technology center; co-located there are a boundary layer wind profiler and Doppler Sodar, as well as the nearby KLBB Doppler radar operated by the National Weather Service is located nearby. Together, these sensing platforms provide observational data of dramatically improved resolution for the Researchers at WISE as well as others. In order to highlight the advantages at the greater density, observations of the damaging wind events of 11 June 2000 and 30 May 2001 will be presented.Item Development of the West Texas mesonet and supporting instrumentation(Texas Tech University, 2005-05) Weinbeck, Stephen W.; Peterson, Richard E.; Smith, Douglas; Chang, Chia-Bo; Mulligan, KevinIn the last several years, the Wind Science and Engineering Center (WISE) at Texas Tech University has acquired a collection of new atmospheric sensing platforms. The most important of these is the West Texas Mesonet, an array of 40 automated surface observation systems. The purpose of the Mesonet is the acquisition of high spatial and temporal measurements of the atmosphere in West Texas. This provides an order of magnitude increase in the spatial resolution of atmospheric phenomena. The primary focus of WISE research is to understand the surface layer effects of high wind events. The addition of the mesonet allows for substantially better understanding of the resolution of the environment in which these damaging windstorms form and propagate. Despite the improvement of the resolution of the atmosphere, many important physical processes in the storm environment cannot be resolved directly through mesonet observations. In order to provide the high spatial resolution that is necessary, additional observations need to be utilized in conjunction with the Mesonet. Short portable towers and mobile mesonet vehicles allow researchers to capture very high spatial and temporal scales in the atmosphere. To supplement the additional data density at the surface , there is a new WISE boundary layer tower at the Reese technology center; co-located there are a boundary layer wind profiler and Doppler Sodar, as well as the nearby KLBB Doppler radar operated by the National Weather Service is located nearby. Together, these sensing platforms provide observational data of dramatically improved resolution for the Researchers at WISE as well as others. In order to highlight the advantages at the greater density, observations of the damaging wind events of 11 June 2000 and 30 May 2001 will be presented.Item Surface layer characteristics of thunderstorm outflow(Texas Tech University, 1997-12) Weinbeck, Stephen W.The objective of this study is to define the turbulent characteristics of thunderstorm outflow winds in the surface layer. Thunderstorms are one of the most common types of severe weather, and the climatological record for many stations shows many extreme wind events can be identified as having been generated by thunderstorms. However, until recently it has proved difficult to separate which high wind events are caused by thunderstorm outflows, and which are generated by typical extratropical low-pressure systems. The advent of the Doppler weather radar and the deployment of a national network of these radars across the continental United States provides a powerful new tool for the classification and analysis of thunderstorm outflow events. Studies have shown that in many locations the strongest winds on record are generated by thunderstorms (Twisdale and Vickery, 1992, 1995). In many cases, these straight-line winds can cause damage similar to that caused by tornadoes. Besides causing structural damage near the surface, the lifting of less dense ambient air by thunderstorm winds can be the focusing and/or riggering mechanism for further thunderstorm development to occur. It is the modification of the environment surrounding the storm, and the localized nature of the outflow and cloud system that has made the investigation and forecasting of thunderstorms difficult. It is possible to be very near a severe thunderstorm and yet not feel the effects of the rain, hail, or outflow winds. In many cases the thunderstorms are not captured by the surface observation network that the National Weather Service (NWS) has set up to observe weather systems that occur on much larger scale.