Learn to Use Earth Data
About
Full catalog/tornadoes-2024-dow-sw-harlan
tornadoes-2024-dow-sw-harlan·dataset

Radar view of wind turbulence in the 2024 Harlan tornado, from Doppler on Wheels radar (DOW7)

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).