Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	McGinnis, Nathaniel L.
Language:	English
Published:	Ohio University / OhioLINK 2016
Subjects:	Meteorology Geography Geographic Information Science tornadoes tornado intensity topography elevation land-cover surface roughness rapid-scan radar
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1471459517

id	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ohiou1471459517
record_format	oai_dc
spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ohiou14714595172021-08-03T06:38:16Z Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems McGinnis, Nathaniel L. Meteorology Geography Geographic Information Science tornadoes tornado intensity topography elevation land-cover surface roughness rapid-scan radar High spatio-temporal datasets collected by two rapid-scan, mobile, Doppler radars (the University of Oklahoma’s rapid-scan, X-band, polarimetric (RaXPol) radar and the Naval Post-Graduate School’s Mobile Weather Radar 2005 X-Band Phased Array (MWR-05XP)) are used to investigate the relationships between tornado intensity and land cover type. Through the application of Geographic Information System techniques, elevation, slope, and aspect values are derived using the United States Geological Survey’s Digital Elevation Model. Additionally, surface roughness values are extracted using land-cover data from the USGS National Land-Cover Database and surface roughness values from the Environmental Protection Agency AERSURFACE User’s Guide. The extracted topographic and surface roughness values are then compared to the intensity values (Delta Vmax) obtained through radar analysis. Linear correlations, comparison of means, and multiple linear regression techniques are used to test the significance of the data in order to determine the possible relationships between tornado intensity and topography/land-cover. While significant statistical relationships are found using these techniques, the relationships do not favor a specific direction and often reversed between cases. However, based upon the results from the multiple linear regression it is hypothesized that the radar beam height was a strong predictor of tornado intensity for these particular cases, which implies that over all of the topographic and land-cover variables, the tornado intensity observed was significantly influenced by the location of the radar’s lowest-level beam height. Nevertheless, several unique topography/land-cover features did appear to affect tornado intensity, encouraging the continued investigation of the potential relationships, despite the contradicting statistical relationships found here. 2016 English text Ohio University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1471459517 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1471459517 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Meteorology Geography Geographic Information Science tornadoes tornado intensity topography elevation land-cover surface roughness rapid-scan radar
spellingShingle	Meteorology Geography Geographic Information Science tornadoes tornado intensity topography elevation land-cover surface roughness rapid-scan radar McGinnis, Nathaniel L. Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems
author	McGinnis, Nathaniel L.
author_facet	McGinnis, Nathaniel L.
author_sort	McGinnis, Nathaniel L.
title	Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems
title_short	Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems
title_full	Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems
title_fullStr	Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems
title_full_unstemmed	Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems
title_sort	topography and land-cover effects on tornado intensity using rapid-scan mobile radar observations and geographic information systems
publisher	Ohio University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2016
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1471459517
work_keys_str_mv	AT mcginnisnathaniell topographyandlandcovereffectsontornadointensityusingrapidscanmobileradarobservationsandgeographicinformationsystems
_version_	1719440620003524608

Topography and Land-Cover Effects on Tornado Intensity using Rapid-Scan Mobile Radar Observations and Geographic Information Systems

Similar Items