The Testing Blog

May 22:

Huge success for TWISTEX on this day. Deployed the new instrument in the path of the developing wedge tornado that crossed to the north of Bowdle, South Dakota. Tornado then developed into a strong/violent tornado causing incredible damage to high-voltage line towers about 2 miles north of Bowdle. Several farm houses were heavily damaged. One tower was ripped off its footings and tossed over 300 meters. Watched 3+ tornadoes on this day. Helped National Weather service in Aberdeen, South Dakota with a damage survey, and based collectively on our findings–helped to get the big Bowdle tornado rated an EF4.

 May 24:

TWISTEX crew witnessed as many as 9 tornadoes near Bison, SD and just across the border in North Dakota.  Team attempted a couple of deployments as well with the smaller in-situ probes.  Congrats to the entire

TWISTEX An historic day for the TWISTEX group! We deployed our new large instrument in the path of a tornado yesterday in northern South Dakota with only seconds to spare. Numerous tornadoes observed/sampled including a huge wedge tornado that ripped across the prairie. High-tension power lines crumbled right in front of us—a career chase for everyone involved. Congrats to all involved. Tim Samaras May 23, 2010.

Stay tuned as we follow NTS Colorado Operations Manager Tim Samaras and Team TWISTEX.

Tornadoes, Lightning in Rare VideoTornadoes, Lightning in Rare Video

Tim Samaras is the Operations Manager for the Colorado Division of NTS. Tim has been working on research in instrumentation development and severe storm research including instrumentation package deployment on Project TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornado/Thunderstorm Experiment.)

Tim Samaras spends May and June in a van outfitted with GPS, radios, scanners, monitors, a wireless Internet connection, and satellite tracking instruments. His harrowing task: to spot tornadoes, try to put himself in their path, and then deploy newly designed probes that measure meteorological conditions in the vortex of the beasts. Then he promptly gets out of the way. “The tools I come up with have to take nearly impossible measurements.”

As families scramble to avoid deadly tornadoes, Tim Samaras races straight toward them. He careens across the United States’ notorious Tornado Alley on a mission: Predict the exact coordinates of an unborn tornado, arrive before it does, and place a weather-measurement probe directly in the twister’s violent, swirling path.

“Data from the probes helps us understand tornado dynamics and how they form. With that piece of the puzzle we can make more precise forecasts and ultimately give people earlier warnings,” Samaras explained. Since current warnings average a slim 13 minutes, every extra second of warning can be a lifesaver for residents facing a twister’s wrath.

We will be following Tim on his adventures this summer as the Discovery Channels tapes his outings for the upcoming Storm Chasers episodes due to be aired Fall 2010.

http://thunderchase.com/content/view/13/31/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TWISTEX/323856020150

http://www.facebook.com/StormChasers

The M82 Percussion Primer is employed to initiate the propelling charges of separately loaded artillery weapon systems. Unique to the 155 mm M777 Light Weight Howitzer weapon system design is the use of a magazine assembly mounted in the breach mechanism of the howitzer in which ten M82 percussion primers are loaded. This design allows the primers to experience shock loadings associated with multiple howitzer firings. To address concerns as to the potential impact this shock environment may have on the sensitivity of the percussion primers in the Marine Corps inventory, the Expeditionary Systems Evaluation Division of NSWC Crane, in concert with National Technical Systems (NTS) Ordnance Sciences department, conducted tests to characterize the pyrotechnic shock imparted to the magazine assembly of the M777 howitzer during weapon system firings and then used this data to develop a series of laboratory tests to characterize changes in the sensitivity of the M82 Percussion Primer as a result of multiple exposures to these shock environments. This work was done in support of the Program Manager for Ammunition of the Marine Corps System Command service life accelerated age testing program. The paper “Pyrotechnic Shock Loading of the M82 Percussion Primer in the M777 Light Weight Howitzer Magazine Assembly” will be presented at the NDIA Joint Armaments Conference being held in Dallas, TX, May 17 through 20, 2010. NTS will be exhibiting in booth 521.