Invisible Tornadoes
By Tony Phillips

The biggest problem with tornados-next to the swirling 300-mph winds-is that it's hard to see them coming.

But soon scientists will be able to foresee, not merely tornados, but the severe storms that spawn them, hours before there's even a cloud in the sky! Mind you, this isn't a vague "30 percent chance of rain today" type forecast. Thanks to a new satellite technology being co-developed by NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Navy, emergency personnel will actually watch the invisible beginnings of a storm unfold.


"They're going to know where the storm centers are forming before the storms are there," says James Miller, project manager for Earth Observing 3 (EO3), a satellite that will test out this new technology in 2005 or 2006.

Unlike the tiny water droplets that make up clouds, the water vapor that feeds storms is invisible to the human eye. Water vapor is easy to detect, however, at infrared (IR) wavelengths. EO3 will use an IR-sensitive device called GIFTS-short for Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer-to make 3D movies of temperature, pressure, and water vapor in Earth's atmosphere.

Three or four hours before the storm clouds are visible, meteorologists will notice water vapor converging toward an area. This water vapor, which provides the "fuel" for the coming storm, is too close to the ground for today's weather satellites to see. Then meteorologists will check precisely how the air temperature over that area varies vertically (something else ordinary satellites can't do). This temperature variation determines whether the humid air will rise to form storm clouds. And when these conditions look ominous, the meteorologists can alert the public.

The goal of EO3 is to "test drive" this new technology and prove that it works. If successful, NOAA plans to incorporate GIFTS-style sensors into its next generation of weather satellites.

These future satellites will give meteorologists exactly what they need in order to give the people exactly what they need: an earlier warning that tornados may be on the way.

GIFTS and EO3 are managed by NASA's New Millennium Program. NASA and NOAA will operate EO3 during its first year in geosynchronous orbit above the United States. If the technology works as planned, the U.S. Navy will assume control of EO3, move the satellite to a point above the Indian Ocean, and use it to monitor weather in shipping lanes there.

For adults, the EO3 web site at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/eo3 has more about the mission and the GIFTS instrument. For children, The Space Place web site at http://www.spaceplace.nasa.gov/eo3_compression.htm has a jazzy, interactive "squishy ball" demo of the data compression methods that will be used on EO3.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.