Storm Chasers 2009 Update

New Vehicles and New Teams

What's Ahead In This Chase Season

Team TWISTEX Probes
Team Twistex deploys two types of probe. The Hardened In-situ Tornado Pressure Recorder, or HITPR for short (pictured at right) accurately records pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction at 10 samples per second and stores the data on a standard flashcard. The flashcard acts like a "black box" that can be retrieved with all the data even if the probe is destroyed. Tim carries five of these probes in the truck. The second type are two photogrammatic, or video, probes (pictured at left) with seven video cameras in each. Six cameras are arranged in a ring with each covering a 60 degree field of view providing a full 360 field of view of the tornado. Tim can use both of them together for a stereo view of the passing tornado.