UK researchers looking at new ways to track tornadoes

Dr Seth Carpenter with the Kentucky Geological Survey spends a lot of his time monitoring ground vibrations in the state of Kentucky with real-time earthquake monitoring from the Kentucky Seismic and Strong Motion Network. However, his most recent research is raising things to a new level.

“The purpose of the project would be: Can we use our real-time seismic network to assist with the detection of a tornado once it’s touched the ground?” Carpenter explained.

The idea came from the December 2021 Tornado outbreak that devastated Western Kentucky, including Mayfield.

“We happened to record vibrations during the passage of those tornadoes,” Carpenter said.

Two separate sites near the track of the Mayfield tornado were able to follow the path as the storm passed into Kentucky.

“As the tornado approaches, we see this increase in seismic amplitudes, and then a decrease after it passes by,” Carpetner said.

The research is a collaboration between the Kentucky Geological Survey and UK Graduate student Seth Thompson, and is still a work in progress as they continue to collect data.

Most recently, they tracked ground vibrations from a USGS earthquake monitoring station in southern Kentucky during this May’s deadly EF4 tornado.

Carpenter stressed the importance of the research, elaborating that “Doppler radar is limited to minutes between observations, our data is limited to hundredths of seconds.”

The team is actively improving Kentucky’s current seismic network, installing advanced sensors across the state. If successful, their end goal is to enhance and aid the National Weather Service’s advanced warning system.

“We are hoping that we can use our network, which is distributed across the state and records data at a very high sample rate, to assist with the detection and confirmation of tornadoes that have touched down.”