Design and Rocket Deployment of a Trackable Pseudo-Lagrangian Drifter based Meteorological Probe into the Lawrence/Linwood EF4 Tornado and Mesocyclone on 28 May 2019

A custom lightweight, miniaturized, and trackable meteorological probe was launched by a model rocket into the inflow region near an EF4, long-tracked tornado south of Lawrence, Kansas, on 28 May 2019 and sampled tornado core flow. The rocket reached apogee at 439 m AGL, releasing the "pseudo-Lagrangian drifter" by parachute directly into the tornado vortex. The probe reached a velocity of 85.1 m s-1 in the first revolution around the tornado, measured a pressure deficit of -113.5 hPa at 475 m MSL, and sampled a tornadic updraft of 65.0 m s-1. The probe then transitioned to an environment exhibiting more tilted ascent above an altitude of 4,300 m MSL at speeds up to 84.0 m s-1 to a maximum altitude of 11,914 m MSL. 1 Hz pressure, temperature, relative humidity, GPS, acceleration, gyroscope, and magnetometer data for the flight were transmitted in real-time to a ground station until the probe landed 51 km northeast of the launch position. The probe was recovered without damage, which is attributed to the pseudo-Lagrangian Drifter design, and then higher resolution 10 Hz data was downloaded. This novel deployment method and design facilitate data collection in real-time from within tornadoes, the mesocyclone, and downdraft without requiring the probes to be recovered or for researchers to enter the circulation to deploy equipment.