For most, the tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma on May 10 were a fright, but for Robert Palmer, director of U. Oklahoma’s Atmospheric Radar Research Center, they were an opportunity to study.

The tornadoes caused nearly $13 million in damages, but also provided unprecedented high-resolution data that Palmer’s team is currently processing and preparing for distribution.

Palmer said the close proximity of the tornadoes to the OU radar allowed for fine details of the storms to be seen.

“We’re lucky because we can finally see details of storms … and it’s because it’s really close to the radar, which is pure luck,” Palmer said.

The polarimetric radar being used at OU is unique because unlike most radar that only transmit horizontal waves, the polarimetric radar transmits both vertical and horizontal waves, Palmer said.

“You can see what type of [precipitation] it is by using polarimetric radar,” Palmer said. “The only way to do it before was to measure on the ground with a gauge and it was very cumbersome because it required many gauges on the ground.”

PRIME (Polarimetric Radar for Innovations in Meteorology and Engineering) was completed in January 2009 and is the highest-resolution polarimetric radar in the U.S.

Palmer said data would be used to improve knowledge of the tornadogenesis, the meteorological term to describe the origin of tornadoes. The data will also be used to improve computer programs that detect severe weather.

“It’s sort of the Holy Grail of tornado research,” he said.