Analyses For Assessing The Centreline Translation, Asymmetrical Wind-Field, And Velocity Fluctuations Of Tornado Vortices
Abstract
Tornadoes present an ever-increasing threat to communities worldwide, especially those with geographic conditions that place them in the path of several tornadoes annually. These conditions are likely to be exacerbated by ongoing trends in the climate. As such, it is necessary to move towards experimental and numerical tornado-like vortex studies that allow for more advanced simulation methods. Novel techniques for tracking and analysing tornado vortices simulated at high spatial and temporal resolution are presented herein. Significant wandering of the tornado's position and large peaks in the velocity field can be captured, demonstrating tangential gusting at more than 1.5 times the conventional peak average value. These gusts were also demonstrated to occur over a wider range of distance from the tornado centre than previous methods would detect. Finally, recommendations for spatial and temporal scaling of the results of conventional analyses are presented to guide the future of tornado-like vortex research.