PERiLS

PERiLS (Propagation, Evolution and Rotation in Linear Storms) is a collaborative effort that leverages NOAA’s contributions to PERiLS, adding critical instruments from the NSF LAOF to provide the sampling necessary to address environmental factors and storm processes that lead to quasi-linear convective systems (QLCS) tornadogenesis.

The long-range goal is to improve the understanding and prediction of tornadoes associated with QLCSs, which have received comparatively little study, are poorly understood, and present substantial operational challenges. The rationale for this program is that there has never been a field campaign targeting QLCS tornadoes, despite the gaps in our knowledge about them, and the particular societal vulnerability in the SE and elsewhere. The present moment is the ideal time to pursue this campaign, due to the beneficial synergy between the instrumentation and scientists supported by NSF and NOAA.

PERiLS consists of two campaigns, with PERiLS 2022 taking place from 1 March to 30 April 2022 and PERiLS 2023 taking place from 8 February to 8 May 2023. An extensive collection of mobile and fixed instrumentation will be deployed to collect the observational data needed to get at the science goals. It includes a set of mobile radars including the Dopper on Wheels (DOW), C-band on Wheels (COW), MAX, NOXP, SMART-R and SMART-R. A number of profiling platforms will be deployed including multiple mobile radiosonde systems, CLAMPS, MIPS, RaDAPS, and MoDLS as well as mobile lidar systems. Additionally there will be surface systems including surface weather stations, mobile mesonets, and a deployable LMA.