ROTATE, conducted between 1-31 May 2008 in the Great Plains, employs the Doppler On Wheels (DOW) mobile radar operated by the Center for Severe Weather Research , mobile mesonet stations, and CU’s mobile drop-size and fall velocity disdrometers to observe the kinematic and thermodynamic process of tornado formation, tornado structure, tornado life cycle, and tornado death. Major goals are to collect observations that will enable the evaluation of tornadogenesis hypotheses and to continue studies of tornado vortex structure and climatology.
