The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis
Visualization of a Simulated Long-Track EF5 Tornado Embedded Within a Supercell Thunderstorm.
Authors: Leigh Orf (Central Michigan University), Robert Wilhelmson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Louis Wicker (National Severe Storms Laboratory)
Abstract: Tornadoes are one of nature’s most destructive
forces, creating winds that can exceed 300 miles per hour. The
sheer destructive power of the strongest class of tornado (EF5)
makes these tornadoes the subject of active research. However,
very little is currently known about why some supercells
produce long-track (a long damage path) EF5 tornadoes, while
other storms in similar environments produce short-lived, weak
tornadoes, or produce no tornado at all.
In this work we visualize cloud model simulation data
of a supercell thunderstorm that produces a long-track EF5
tornado. Several obstacles needed to be overcome in order to
produce the visualization of this simulation, including manag-
ing hundreds of TB of model I/O, interfacing the model output
format to a high-quality visualization tool, choosing effective
visualization parameters, and, most importantly, actually creat-
ing a simulation where a long-track EF5 tornado occurs within
the model, which only recently has been accomplished.
