This $1.1 million project grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) will fund research at Pennsylvania State University from April 2022 through March 2025 to improve understanding of supercell thunderstorms and tornado formation. The research team will analyze well-observed tornadic storms using innovative observation and simulation techniques to address fundamental questions about tornado rotation, the role of surface friction and baroclinically-generated vorticity, and why storms with similar environments produce different outcomes. Specifically, the researchers will apply diabatic Lagrangian analysis to multi-Doppler radar and thermodynamic observations to create 4D fields for material circuit analyses. They will also conduct numerical simulations using a non-equilibrium lower boundary condition and two-layer modeling approaches. Additional simulations will target environmental controls on convective initiation and storm modes. Outreach is also planned to enhance public science literacy. The research aims to provide forecasters more insight into why some storms spawn tornadoes over others in the same conditions.