Shuttle Disaster on Radar
Sat February 1st, 2003 10:18 MSTI was awakened this morning by a call telling me of the tragic destruciton of the Shuttle Columbia.
As a weather hobbyist, I found out that the NWS doppler radar had captured images of the debris track.
The following is an image from the Shreveport, LA radar 30 minutes after the incident. It clearly shows a radar return along the track of the debris. At the time of this writing (over two hours later), some debris (or resulting cloud) is still visible on this radar.
Click above for larger image.
Note: this is a public domain image from UCAR.
Click for the radar image loop from the actual time of the disaster. (Thanks to Mike Oronain for slowing down the loop from when I first posted it).
Shuttle Breakup Caught on Doppler Radar Image
A weather hobbiest, the author of Useful Fools has captured a radar image of the breakup of Columbia.
Is that blob northwest of the track also part of the debris cloud or is that just a storm?
The blob of returns is actually ground clutter around the radar site in Shreveport.
The blob is probably debris scattering in varying winds at different levels- bear in mind the sizes vary all over the place, and they fall at different speeds. Thus they will drift relative to one another, as well as with the prevailing wind.
I found the radar track on archives from several different NWS archives. The only consistent feature is the line of high reflectivity extending WNW to ENE. The earliest I have found so far is from Amarillo radar at 8:00AM CST. I am still looking, although the archive site appears to have been flooded since I posted the link here to it.
John
If anyone’s curious about how the WSR-88D (NEXRAD) radar works or are confused by something in this morning’s images, I’ve posted an explanation on my weblog:
http://www.jefflawson.net/nowhere/archive/001142.html
Oh, and John - I didn’t realize until now that you were “storm chaser” John Moore. I think we met briefly at the Stormtrack picnic in 2001.
Jeff…
We probably met in 2001, but not at the Stormtrack picnic. I seem to always manage to miss it one way or another. I think the last one I attended was in 1996 or 1997.
If you look elsewhere on this site, you will find my stormchase trip logs and pictures. Planning on heading out this year to do it again.
John
Winer and others on story
Thanks Dave
What are the radiating lines that appear from the ground clutter to the north-east of the main track toward the end of the animation ?
I am not sure. It is not unusual to see a single radial line as a result of interference from another radar. One of these seems to happen on the 14:45:19 image. I don’t know why so many appear later - it may be that parts of the debris cloud have drifted over the radar area and are reflecting in signals from other WSR-88D’s, it might be military radars from aircraft coming in for the search, or it may be some other kind of artifact.
I really don’t know.
The radar at 14:45:19 shows a parallel radial from Shreveport which the radar controller has created to ‘verify’ the heading of the shuttle Columbia. Succeeding radar images show the radar controller again scanning the sky with radials in order to plot where the debris cloud is at that time and how ‘heavy’ the debris return is back to the radar facility.
According to my understanding of the WSR-88D (and I have spent a bunch of time with it), you cannot create such a “radial.” I think what you are referring to is probably a range folded return from the debris far downrange.
I LIVE 40 MILES FROM WACO AND 69 MILES FROM TEMPLE. THEY ARE PAYING US 18 DOLLARS A HEAD FOR CATTLE THAT ARE IN THE DISASTER AREA. ALSO, I HAVE SEEN IF A PERSON DELIVERS (SELLS) BEEF AND OTHER MEAT PRODUCTS WHICH INCLUDE FISH, SHEEP, ETC. THEY ARE REQUIRED TO DO SPECIAL TESTING.
ANOTHER QUESTION: IS ANY BODY REPORTED ANY MEDICAL PROBLEMS? I HAVE BEEN HAVING SEVER BURNING IN MY CHEST. THE VA JUST PASSED OFF AS
EEG OTHER WISE I AM OK. I PASSED OUT A FEW WEEKS LATER I FIND, FROM A PRIVATE HOSPITAL, I HAVE A 3 MM MARK IN MY CHEST. NEXT I HAVE THE VA X-RAY ME AND THEY FIND THE SAME. THEN THEY HAVE A CT-SCAN DO WHICH AGAIN VERIFY THAT I HAVE A THICK MASS UP IN THE AREA. NOW, I AM SCHEDULED FOR A BA SWALLOW WITH A UGI. COULD ANY OF THIS BE A CAUSE FOR CONCERNED BECAUSE OF THE SHUTTLE DISASTER