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tornadoes-2024-dow-refl-harlan·dataset

Radar Reflectivity of the Harlan, Iowa Tornado (2024)

DOW7 Reflectivity (Harlan, IA)
atmosphere NASA VEDA COG
In plain English

What it measures. A radar snapshot of how much rain, debris, and other material was suspended in the air inside the EF-3 tornado that struck Harlan, Iowa on April 26, 2024. Brighter readings (in units called dBZ) mean denser material aloft.

How it's made. Captured by DOW7, a truck-mounted mobile Doppler-on-Wheels weather radar driven close to the storm.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists study tornado structure and intensity to improve future warnings and forecasts.

What's measured

tornadoes2024dowreflharlan

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-04-26 → 2024-04-26
  • Spatial extent-95.42, 41.62, -95.3, 41.72
  • FormatsCOG

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

Horizontal Reflectivity values (dBZ) collected by DOW7 from the Harlan, Iowa EF-3 tornado on April 26, 2024 at 23:08:12.

Get the data

veda_access.py
# NASA VEDA — open STAC API, anonymous (cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://openveda.cloud/api/stac")
col = cat.get_collection("tornadoes-2024-dow-refl-harlan")
items = list(col.get_items())          # browse the analysis-ready COGs
# open an asset with rioxarray:
# import rioxarray; da = rioxarray.open_rasterio(items[0].assets["cog_default"].href)
NASA VEDA is an open STAC catalog — browse and stream the cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs anonymously (no login).