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arXiv · 2506.18677

Reconstructing Tornadoes in 3D with Gaussian Splatting

Adam Yang·Nadula Kadawedduwa·Tianfu Wang·Sunny Sharma·Emily F. Wisinski·Jhayron S. Pérez-Carrasquilla·Kyle J. C. Hall·Dean Calhoun·Jonathan Starfeldt·Timothy P. Canty·Maria Molina·Christopher Metzler
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Abstract

Accurately reconstructing the 3D structure of tornadoes is critically important for understanding and preparing for this highly destructive weather phenomenon. While modern 3D scene reconstruction techniques, such as 3D Gaussian splatting (3DGS), could provide a valuable tool for reconstructing the 3D structure of tornados, at present we are critically lacking a controlled tornado dataset with which to develop and validate these tools. In this work we capture and release a novel multiview dataset of a small lab-based tornado. We demonstrate one can effectively reconstruct and visualize the 3D structure of this tornado using 3DGS.

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Adam Yang, Nadula Kadawedduwa, Tianfu Wang, Sunny Sharma, Emily F. Wisinski, Jhayron S. Pérez-Carrasquilla, Kyle J. C. Hall, Dean Calhoun, Jonathan Starfeldt, Timothy P. Canty, Maria Molina, Christopher Metzler. 2025-06-23. Reconstructing Tornadoes in 3D with Gaussian Splatting. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.18677

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