Tornado Vorticity, Velocity, And Visibility

Vorticity fields, like gravity fields, are crucial in the formation of tornadoes. While gravity fields are generally invisible, their strength is felt daily. Humans can sense the horizontal direction to a fraction of a degree, enabling them to navigate the land without falling and construct houses that don’t fall either. Less frequently, humans encounter vorticity fields. One notable instance is when a tornado arrives and destroys houses. Distant air swirls connecting upward from the ground surface to a large thunderhead in the troposphere, characterized by a dark and rotating head, can serve as a warning of a strong vortex field approaching. The storm head is usually extensive, making the rotation of the storm cloud less apparent. This is best observed by witnessing a synchronized circulation of cloud edges from a safe distance. However, the presence of powerful circulation currents can be detected when moisture condenses along a connection or vortex tube extending from the surface to the storm head, reflecting sunlight. Unless this occurs, the rotation of the tropospheric storm head remains largely invisible. The storm head rotation generates vorticity lines that descend to the ground, which are invisible unless dust swirls around them at ground level or until a connecting tube forms, condenses moisture, and rapidly turns, revealing the presence of a shaft or column of vorticity field lines. Vorticity is as powerful as gravity, but both remain invisible until they interact with a reflecting mass in daylight. This lack of observability might explain why Newton’s Laws include the effects of gravity but not vorticity. While storm chasers may follow tornadoes, especially in England, it would have been challenging for Newton to pursue a tornado on horseback. Instead, Newton concentrated on the motion of planets in our solar system, influenced solely by gravity. Later, when Einstein expanded Newton’s theory of gravity within his General Theory of Relativity by considering frames of reference accelerating at a constant relative rate, vorticity was once again overlooked. However, in the Alps of Switzerland and nearby Olm, it was uncommon for tornadoes to reach the ground. Einstein instead shifted his focus to the impact of large masses and light propagation within our galaxy. In 2017, a groundbreaking theory of mechanical fields was unveiled, integrating both gravity and vorticity. This theory holds the potential to revolutionize our understanding of tornado formation. It posits that mass velocity serves as a vector potential for a vorticity field, akin to electric current being a vector potential for a magnetic field, as elucidated in Maxwell’s Equations. Moreover, this theory establishes a connection between the vorticity field and fluxes, as well as between vorticity and gravity, through the concept of mechanical material permeability and permittivity. It is remarkable that electrical engineering, which emerged only two decades after Maxwell’s Equations were published, found its way into the industrial landscape. Perhaps, a similar trajectory can be anticipated for the 2017 mechanical laws, which may empower storm chasers with engineering devices capable of detecting tornado vorticity.