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tornadoes-2024-dow-sw-harlan·dataset

Radar Wind Turbulence of the Harlan, Iowa Tornado (2024)

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

What it measures. A radar measure (spectrum width, in meters per second) of how chaotic and turbulent the winds were inside the EF-3 tornado that hit Harlan, Iowa on April 26, 2024. Higher values point to the most violent, swirling parts of the storm.

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 locate a tornado's most dangerous core to better understand its winds.

What's measured

tornadoes2024dowharlan

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

Spectrum Width values (m/s) from the EF-3 Harlan, IA tornado on April 26, 2024 collected by DOW7. Scan taken 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-sw-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).