A satellite tornado is a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

that revolves around a larger, primary tornado and interacts with the same mesocyclone. Satellite tornadoes occur apart from the primary tornado and are not considered subvortices; the primary tornado and satellite tornadoes are considered to be separate tornadoes. The cause of satellite tornadoes is not known. Such tornadoes are more often anticyclonic than are typical tornadoes and these pairs may be referred to as tornado couplets. Satellite tornadoes commonly occur in association with very powerful, large, and destructive tornadoes, indicative also of the strength and severity of the parent

supercell thunderstorm A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ...

. Satellite tornadoes are relatively uncommon. When a satellite tornado does occur, there is often more than one orbiting satellite spawned during the life cycle of the tornado or with successive primary tornadoes spawned by the parent supercell (a process known as cyclic tornadogenesis and leading to a tornado family). On

tornado outbreak __NOTOC__ A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least two rotational ...

days, if satellite tornadoes occur with one supercell, there is an elevated probability of their occurrence with other supercells. Satellite tornadoes may merge into their companion tornado although often the appearance of this occurring is an illusion caused when an orbiting tornado revolves around the backside of a primary tornado obscuring view of the satellite. During the March 1990 Central United States tornado outbreak, one member of a tornado family (rated F5) constricted and became a satellite tornado of the next tornado of the family before merging into the new primary tornado which soon also intensified to F5.

Examples

Some examples of tornado couplets include the

Tri-State Tornado On March 18, 1925, one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in recorded history generated at least twelve significant tornadoes and spanned a large portion of the midwestern and southern United States. In all, at least 751 people were kil ...

, multiple tornadoes during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, the 2007 Greensburg tornado, and the

2013 El Reno tornado During the early evening of Friday, May 31, 2013, a very large and powerful tornado occurred over rural areas of Central Oklahoma. This rain-wrapped, multiple-vortex tornado was the widest tornado ever recorded and was part of a larger weath ...

. Satellite tornadoes are more likely to be recognized in recent decades than in the far past as eyewitness accounts as well as damage survey information are often available for later events. The advent of

storm chasing Storm chasing is broadly defined as the deliberate pursuit of any severe weather phenomenon, regardless of motive, but most commonly for curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases stor ...

, in particular, boosts the likelihood that satellite tornadoes are noticed visually and/or on mobile

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

. These tornadoes may remain over open country and thus cause less structural damage and consequently are less widely known. Such examples include near Beloit, Kansas on 15 May 1990 and during Project VORTEX near Allison, Texas on 8 June 1995, among other events.

References

External links

Satellite tornado
(by Roger Edwards) * {{cite journal , last = Lemon , first = Leslie R. , author2=A. Stan-Sion , author3=C. Soci , author4=E. Cordoneanu , title = A strong, long-track, Romanian tornado , journal = Atmos. Res. , volume = 67-68 , pages = 391–416 , date = Jul–Sep 2003 , doi = 10.1016/S0169-8095(03)00063-2 , bibcode = 2003AtmRe..67..391L Tornado Tornadogenesis Satellite tornadoes

Examples

See also

References

External links