If a severe thunderstorm is strong enough, it can become a supercell thunderstorm. A supercell thunderstorm is the type that is most likely to spawn a tornado. In a supercell, as the air moves upward it begins to rotate, which does not happen in other types of thunderstorms. When the whole cell rotates, it is called a mesocyclone.
Tracking Thunderstorms. Many meteorologists use Doppler radar to track thunderstorms. Christian Doppler suggested the idea behind Doppler radar over 150 years ago. It differs from traditional weather radar because it can detect not only where a storm is located, but also how fast the air inside the storm is moving.
Doppler radar transmits pulses of waves that are reflected by water droplets in the air. Some of the energy reflected by the droplets then returns to the radar unit and shows how the storm is moving and what it looks like. Doppler radar also shows where moisture is located in a storm because where there is a higher moisture content, there is greater reflectivity since there is more for the waves to reflect off of.
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