Hurricane Ike 2008

CU-ATOC students and Center of Severe Weather teams intercepted Hurricane Ike on 14 September 2008 (upper image), deploying to the landfall point in Galveston, Texas. The CSWR-Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar was deployed in eastern Galveston, 10 wind measuring platforms were distributed on the eastern Galveston seawall, the Galveston causeway, and the Texas City seawall, two mobile mesonet vehicles, each deploying a disdrometer were deployed at either ends of the Galveston causeway (right image). The mesovortices likely crossed over the fine-scale surface arrays, so high resolution (50 m gating) and surface data will be compared. Crew who weathered the hurricane in Galveston were extracted safely and are on their way home. The DOW collected many hours of data over the ultra-fine scale surface array. The center of the eye passed nearly exactly over the east Galveston surface array and the mobile vehicles (lower image).  DOW radar data from inside the eye reveal mesovortices rotating around the eye, likely enhancing winds and damage in the areas they cross
(image below).

 

DOW Doppler velocity and radar reflectivity (color bar in Fig. 5) measured during the passage of the eye