Who said science wasn't awesome?

Today's photo might be a repeat, but if it is, I'm repeating it because I LOVE IT SO MUCH. This was shot while covering Project Vortex 2 on June 5, 2009. In the distance, a tornado is rapidly closing; in the foreground, Tim Marshall (crouching, right) and Lindsay Bennett (crouching, left) are deploying a "Tornado Pod" -- a heavy probe loaded down with weather instrumentation designed to be dropped in the direct path of a tornado. They're in a hurry, as the tornado is less than 5 minutes ETA from this exact position, and they still have a couple probes left to deploy and get the heck out of there, with over 40 vehicles trafficjammed along the roadway also getting ready to pull the trigger on bugging out. To the left, you see Mike Tittel, a rather talented photographer, snapping away as well. To the right is a reporter and videographer for Lord-knows-who; the Discovery Channel and the Weather Channel and an IMAX crew were all permanent fixtures on this science mission, along with a handful of reporters from around the world who would drop in and out throughout the weeks. I guess what I love about this shot is the drama of it -- this is one of the only shots I took on the entire mission that captured just how incredibly awesome the work these guys and gals were doing really was.

You should be able to see this intercept later this year (probably on the season finale) on the Discovery Channel's show, "Storm Chasers". It was quite dramatic.