MESO-SAILS

Data at that level can be crucial in summer thunderstorm situations when Doppler patterns for rotations and windshifts, as well as dual polarized information, are indicative of severe weather like tornadoes.

Shortening the time between two scans at low level is therefore an important factor for convective storm detection.

[2] The radar operator may choose 1 to 3 extra scans, depending on the weather situation.

[2] During the summer of 2013, the Radar Operations Center, in order to facilitate "proof of concept" testing of MESO-SAILS, defined two VCPs that were based on VCP-12 that included hardcoded additional low-level split-cut scans.

A study published in 2016 looked at how the MESO-SAILS radar scanning regime performed with respect to tornado debris signature (TDS) detection during the 2016 tornado season in the Iowa Region, compared to the distribution before its implementation.