Jay Clemens
General Atomics’ electromagnetic systems business has secured a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to research a method for direct tornado detection.
The company said Wednesday it will form a collaborative research team with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, which also received a separate NOAA grant, to study the use of infrasound technology as a way to detect tornado.
The team will work to gather infrasound emissions produced during severe weather conditions with General Atomics-built Infrasound Collection Element sensors as part of NOAA’s Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment–Southeast research program.
General Atomics and the University of Alabama will then correlate and verify the sensor data with information from dual polarization Doppler radar and other sources before they analyze the data and develop an algorithm for tornado detection.
“Grants such as this are incredibly important in facilitating scientific and engineering research to validate the use and effectiveness of infrasound technologies to complement current detection methods,” said Nick Bucci, vice president of missile defense and space systems at General Atomics’ electromagnetic systems unit.
