Tornado-producing storms have been observed to emit infrasound (sound at frequencies below human hearing) up to 2 hours before tornadogenesis. Weak atmospheric attenuation at these frequencies allows for long-range detection. Hence, passive infrasonic monitoring could be a method for long-range studying of tornadogenesis as well as tornado characterization. Identifying the fluid mechanism(s) responsible for infrasound production is key to enabling such capabilities, but currently there are insufficient detailed observations to test potential mechanisms. Thus this paper documents infrasound recordings from ∼19 km away from a small unrated (EFU) tornado that formed near Perkins, Oklahoma (35.97, −97.04) at 2013 UTC on 11 May 2017. Analysis of the recording shows that from 4 minutes before to 40 minutes after tornadogenesis spectral peaks formed in the 5-50 Hz band. The bearing angle of this signal tracked with the storm core that produced the tornado. It was also shown that the fundamental frequency associated with the tornado was 8.3 Hz with overtones at 18, 29, 36, and 44 Hz. These overtones are linearly related with the mode number, but are not pure harmonics with a factor of 1.1 between frequencies. In addition, the spectral content was compared with available radar data.
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7 May 2018
175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
7–11 May 2018
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Physical Acoustics: Paper 2pPA8
July 05 2019
Infrasound measurements from a tornado in Oklahoma
Brian R. Elbing
;
Brian R. Elbing
1Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering,
Oklahoma State University Stillwater
, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA
; [email protected]; [email protected]
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Christopher E. Petrin;
Christopher E. Petrin
1Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering,
Oklahoma State University Stillwater
, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA
; [email protected]; [email protected]
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Matthew S. Van Den Broeke
Matthew S. Van Den Broeke
2Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA
; [email protected]
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Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 33, 045003 (2018)
Article history
Received:
June 24 2019
Accepted:
June 28 2019
Connected Content
This is a companion to:
Monitoring infrasound from a Tornado in Oklahoma
Citation
Brian R. Elbing, Christopher E. Petrin, Matthew S. Van Den Broeke; Infrasound measurements from a tornado in Oklahoma. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 7 May 2018; 33 (1): 045003. https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001015
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