Doppler On Wheels

 (or DOW) are a fleet of trucks maintained by the Center for Sever Weather Researchers led be Josh Wurman, with the funding mainly provided by the Nacional Science Foundation. The project consists of three trucks mounted with doppler weather radar dishes, a support vehicle, and a instrumented SUV/Pickups which deploy instrument pods in tornadoes and hurricanes. The Dow mobile radar network has recently been made an NSF Nacional Facility available for use by NSF-funded researchers and others.

The goal of the DOW is to collect as much detailed information on severe and other weather as possible using the mobile Doppler vehicles. DOWs have observed 141 tornadoes at close range, and intercepted the eyes of 11 hurricanes (most recently Ike and Gustav in 2008). DOWs data led to discovery of sub-kilometer hurricane boundary layer rolls, which likely modulate wind damage and may play a key role in hurricane intensification. DOW radar also revealed the most intense tornado winds ever recorded (Bridge creek, 3 May, 1999), and the largest tornadic circulation ever documented (also 3 May, 1999, Mulhall, OK).

One DOW has recently been used by the Discovery Channel's reality television series, Storm Chasers, National Geographic's television special Tornado Intercept, and The True Face of Hurricanes, and PBS Nova episode "The Hunt For The Supertwister." The DOW trucks are based out of Boulder, Colorado. The DOW fleet consists of the DOW 6, DOW 7, and the multi-beam Rapid-Scan DOW. DOWs have participated in over 20 field programs including VORTEX, COPS, MAP, JAWS-Juneau, PAMREX, FLATLAND, CR1, ROTATE, and CALJET, and will be core instrumentation in the upcoming VORTEX2 tornado study.