My brother and I are building a tornado chase vehiclw named r. Toto
which stands for mobile research tornado observation and tracking
observatory. My rother told me to load it down with the nwest
technology. I have no idea what is new on the market so if you have
any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

wrote:

My brother and I are building a tornado chase tornado observation and tracking
observatory. My mother told me to load it down with the newest technology.
any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

The RN has a pretty up to date helicopter for you if you want one off
the shelf. It's called the Merlin but the only pix I can find of it are
ones fitted with sonar. I imagine it would be ideal if you could get
security clearance for the radar version.
http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/eagles/shows/mwias_merlin.jpg

But seriously:

If you want protection for some real up close stuff you need skirts on
the chassis to stop any under vehicle currents getting you airborne. I
suppose drop down slats would do. The thing aught to be smaller at the
top and wide at the base too, to keep it stable. Something roughly VW
Beetle shaped.

Once you decide of the bed you can think about mounting radar and
stuff. Just sticking stuff on a vehicle you happen to have handy is
asking for trouble.

Once you decide on what you might get, think what sort of radar you
want and look at which ones you can mount as low as possible in the
shed or retract when it's found you a tornado. And build the seating
around that.

Then you want 360 degrees of video coverage. So one of these for every
occupant: http://www.dvguru.com/2005/12/06/cam...t-the-fig-rig/