Observations of Waterspouts and Their Parent Clouds PDF Download

Author: Vernon John Rossow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Atmospheric circulation
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Results of a study of waterspouts during the summers of 1967 and 1968 in the area around Key West, Florida are presented. Observations were made from Coast Guard Cutters and from aircraft assigned to the Key West Naval Air Station on a cooperative basis with NASA, Ames Research Center. Measurements made of the electric and magnetic fields associated with these atmospheric vortices indicate that electricity does not play a primary role in their structure and could be eliminated as a generating mechanism or as a means of identification. The measurements did not clarify a secondary or augmentation role for electrical energy because the events which involved electrical activity could not be studied thoroughly enough to identify the relationship with the vortex. Although electricity is eliminated as an essential of defining mechanism, some evidence was found (low cloud tops and a lightning demise of a spout) to indicate that these vortices cannot exist if electricity is too prominent. Of the 104 evehts sighted, it was found that 30 rotated cyclonically, 9 anticyclonically, and the rest either went unnoticed or were not observable. The parent clouds had tops at 8,000-12,000 ft and bottoms from 800-2 500 ft altitude. Other results obtained on the characteristics of Waterspouts supplement those in past publications but stiil do not appear to disclose the mechanism responsible for the formation of the vortex at the time and location of its occurrence. The relationship of these results to tornado structure is uncertain.