Tracking the Centre of Asymmetric Vortices Using Wind Velocity Vector Data Fields

Tornados are a major hazard in many regions around the world and as such it is necessary to analyze them. However, such analyses require accurately tracking them first. Currently, there are gaps in the available vortex detection methods when processing a wind-field dataset to locate a series of points that are identifiable as the tornado centreline. This study proposes a novel solution that corrects for deficiencies in previous attempts to identify vortex centres when applied to tornado wind-fields, which would have otherwise led to identifying merely the region of the vortex, several potential centres requiring post-processing, or erroneously approximating the tornado centre. Additionally, this method combines the efficiency required to process large datasets of temporal and spatial wind velocity vector distributions with the accuracy needed to reliably calculate a specific line as a tornado centre. This method is compared to five other approaches commonly used for vortex identification in order to assess: (a) how accurately they identify the centre region, (b) how they handle extraneous vortices that are not of interest, and (c) their computational efficiency in processing a wind-field dataset. With the proposed method, it would be possible to plot a tornado path from formation to dissipation and perform analyses to understand the vortex characteristics with respect to this path without requiring extensive user-intervention.