Preliminary Design of a Tornado Probe

An interdisciplinary design team at Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., is developing a system for probing tornadoes. The objective of the program is to obtain horizontal profiles of temperature, pressure, wind velocity, and magnetic field in and around a tornado vortex. The present plan for achieving these objectives includes an aircraft to search for tornadoes on "tornado days." Upon sighting a tornado the aircraft will fire a 2.75-inch rocket into the vortex. This 2.75-inch rocket will be outfitted both with instrumentation for measuring pressure, temperature, magnetic field, and wind velocity and with a telemetry system for relaying data back to the launch aircraft. The launch aircraft will contain equipment for recording the telemetry information, and photographic equipment will be used to make indirect measurements.