Nano-Biotechnology

How Does It Feel to Look at a Tornado From the Inside?

Japanese scientists have found a way to look at tornadoes from within

By Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor

14th of May 2007, 20:06 GMT

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Have you ever wondered what does a tornado look like form the inside? Unfortunately, the few people who have experienced being inside a tornado or a storm are not happy talking about it.

Normally, it would be a bumpy ride and a major death risk, to stare at a storm from inside its eye, and not many volunteers can be found to do it, or to live to tell the tale.

Now, a group of Japanese researchers have come up with a new, unique technology that allows them to visualize what's happening inside a powerful storm using special goggles. They have created three-dimensional images

from stocks of data culled over the years and fed into computers and put them together for a spectacular view.

"Thanks to this system, we can discover so much more new data - it's like discovering diamonds!" said Tetsuya Sato, a professor and the project leader at the Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, in Japan.

The new three-dimensional simulations offer a unique perspective of an F5 tornado or a hurricane that could not be obtained otherwise. It also works with earthquakes and tsunamis.

"Earth simulators up until now used to only produce and stock digital data but we couldn't fully understand natural phenomena just by looking at numbers," Sato said.

Scientists used special glasses with sensors inside a cubic room in Yokohama, near Tokyo, where a computer projected data through 3D images that appear across the room.

"The computer processes the data and the system transforms it to appeal to the human senses such as vision," said Sato.

Another use of these new applications is to simulate seeing deep inside the Earth's core using the technology, by creating an image of a flat miniature earth that glides across the walls and bounces into mid-air inside the room.

"We can simulate how streams of molten iron move inside the earth's core and create the magnetic pull," said Akira Kageyama, who designed the system. We have a better forecast of weather and other phenomena than the weather agency does," he said laughing.

TAGS:

simulator | vision | computer | diamond

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