scholarly journals Advanced hodograph-based analysis technique to derive gravity-wave parameters from lidar observations

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-499
Author(s):  
Irina Strelnikova ◽  
Gerd Baumgarten ◽  
Franz-Josef Lübken

Abstract. An advanced hodograph-based analysis technique to derive gravity-wave (GW) parameters from observations of temperature and winds is developed and presented as a step-by-step recipe with justification for every step in such an analysis. As the most adequate background removal technique the 2-D FFT is suggested. For an unbiased analysis of fluctuation whose amplitude grows with height exponentially, we propose applying a scaling function of the form exp (z∕(ςH)), where H is scale height, z is altitude, and the constant ς can be derived by a linear fit to the fluctuation profile and should be in the range 1–10. The most essential part of the proposed analysis technique consists of fitting cosine waves to simultaneously measured profiles of zonal and meridional winds and temperature and subsequent hodograph analysis of these fitted waves. The linear wave theory applied in this analysis is extended by introducing a wave packet envelope term exp⁡(-(z-z0)2/2σ2) that accounts for limited extent of GWs in the observational data set. The novelty of our approach is that its robustness ultimately allows for automation of the hodograph analysis and resolves many more GWs than can be inferred by the manually applied hodograph technique. This technique allows us to unambiguously identify upward- and downward-propagating GWs and their parameters. This technique is applied to unique lidar measurements of temperature and horizontal winds measured in an altitude range of 30 to 70 km.

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 4645-4655 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Ehard ◽  
B. Kaifler ◽  
N. Kaifler ◽  
M. Rapp

Abstract. This study evaluates commonly used methods of extracting gravity-wave-induced temperature perturbations from lidar measurements. The spectral response of these methods is characterized with the help of a synthetic data set with known temperature perturbations added to a realistic background temperature profile. The simulations are carried out with the background temperature being either constant or varying in time to evaluate the sensitivity to temperature perturbations not caused by gravity waves. The different methods are applied to lidar measurements over New Zealand, and the performance of the algorithms is evaluated. We find that the Butterworth filter performs best if gravity waves over a wide range of periods are to be extracted from lidar temperature measurements. The running mean method gives good results if only gravity waves with short periods are to be analyzed.


1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1047-1053 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Lawrence ◽  
P. R. B. Ward ◽  
M. D. MacKinnon

Linear wave theory and wave hindcasting are applied to derive an expression for the depth of water needed to prevent the wind-wave-induced suspension of sediments in mine tailings ponds. The depth is expressed as a function of four factors: the threshold velocity, the wind velocity, the fetch over which the wind blows, and a factor based on the statistical distribution of wave heights. This study was motivated by the need to determine the thickness of water required to prevent the suspension of sludge solids in existing and proposed tailings ponds at Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s oil sands plant. Although data relevant to this problem are used to provide a specific example, the results are applicable whenever sediment suspension is caused by fetch-limited, deep water, wind waves. The results should be of particular use when the available data set is limited, e.g., for proposed tailings ponds. Key words: linear wave theory, wave hindcasting, wind-wave-induced suspension, threshold velocity, sludge capping, reclamation ponds, mine tailings ponds.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Strelnikova ◽  
Gerd Baumgarten ◽  
Franz-Josef Lübken

Abstract. An advanced hodograph-based analysis technique to derive gravity waves (GW) parameters from observations of temperature and winds is developed and presented as a step-by-step recipe with justification of every step in such an analysis. As a most adequate background removal technique the 2D-FFT is suggested. For an unbiased analysis of fluctuation whose amplitude grows with height exponentially we propose to apply a scaling function of the form exp(z/(ςH)), where H is scale height, z is altitude, and the constant ς can be derived by a linear fit to fluctuation profiles and should be in a range 1–10 (we derived ς = 2.15 for our data). The most essential part of the proposed analysis technique consist of fitting of cosines- waves to simultaneously measured profiles of zonal and meridional winds and temperature and subsequent hodograph analysis of these fitted waves. The novelty of our approach is that its robustness ultimately allows for automation of the hodograph analysis and resolves many more GWs than it can be inferred by manually applied hodograph technique. This technique is applied to unique lidar measurements of temperature and horizontal winds measured in an altitude range of 30 to 70 km. A case study of continuous lidar observations from January 09 to 12, 2016 with the ALOMAR Rayleigh-Mie-Raman (RMR) Lidar in Northern Norway (69° N) is analyzed. We use linear wave theory to identify 4507 quasi monochromatic waves and apply the hodograph method which allows to estimate several important parameters of the observed GW. This technique allows to unambiguously identify up- and downward propagating GW. In the vicinity of the polar night jet ∼ 30 % of the detected 15 waves propagate downwards. The upward propagating GW predominantly propagate against the background wind, whereas downward propagating waves show no preferred direction. The kinetic energy density of upward propagating GW is larger than that of the downward propagating waves, whereas the potential energy is nearly the same for both directions. The mean vertical flux of horizontal momentum in the altitude range of 42 to 70 km for the detected waves is about 0.65 mPa for upward propagating GW and 0.53 mPa for downward propagating GW.


2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 2537-2546 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Scinocca ◽  
Bruce R. Sutherland

Abstract A new effect related to the evaluation of momentum deposition in conventional parameterizations of orographic gravity wave drag (GWD) is considered. The effect takes the form of an adjustment to the basic-state wind about which steady-state wave solutions are constructed. The adjustment is conservative and follows from wave–mean flow theory associated with wave transience at the leading edge of the wave train, which sets up the steady solution assumed in such parameterizations. This has been referred to as “self-acceleration” and it is shown to induce a systematic lowering of the elevation of momentum deposition, which depends quadratically on the amplitude of the wave. An expression for the leading-order impact of self-acceleration is derived in terms of a reduction of the critical inverse Froude number Fc, which determines the onset of wave breaking for upwardly propagating waves in orographic GWD schemes. In such schemes Fc is a central tuning parameter and typical values are generally smaller than anticipated from conventional wave theory. Here it is suggested that self-acceleration may provide some of the explanation for why such small values of Fc are required. The impact of Fc on present-day climate is illustrated by simulations of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model.


2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Fouques ◽  
Harald E. Krogstad ◽  
Dag Myrhaug

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of ocean waves involves both the geometry and the kinematics of the sea surface. However, the traditional linear wave theory fails to describe steep waves, which are likely to bring about specular reflection of the radar beam, and it may overestimate the surface fluid velocity that causes the so-called velocity bunching effect. Recently, the interest for a Lagrangian description of ocean gravity waves has increased. Such an approach considers the motion of individual labeled fluid particles and the free surface elevation is derived from the surface particles positions. The first order regular solution to the Lagrangian equations of motion for an inviscid and incompressible fluid is the so-called Gerstner wave. It shows realistic features such as sharper crests and broader troughs as the wave steepness increases. This paper proposes a second order irregular solution to these equations. The general features of the first and second order waves are described, and some statistical properties of various surface parameters such as the orbital velocity, slope, and mean curvature are studied.


2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1316-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.-D. Zhang ◽  
F. Yi ◽  
J.-F. Wang

Abstract. By analyzing the results of the numerical simulations of nonlinear propagation of three Gaussian gravity-wave packets in isothermal atmosphere individually, the nonlinear effects on the characteristics of gravity waves are studied quantitatively. The analyses show that during the nonlinear propagation of gravity wave packets the mean flows are accelerated and the vertical wavelengths show clear reduction due to nonlinearity. On the other hand, though nonlinear effects exist, the time variations of the frequencies of gravity wave packets are close to those derived from the dispersion relation and the amplitude and phase relations of wave-associated disturbance components are consistent with the predictions of the polarization relation of gravity waves. This indicates that the dispersion and polarization relations based on the linear gravity wave theory can be applied extensively in the nonlinear region.Key words: Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (middle atmosphere dynamics; waves and tides)


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 3095-3112 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sawamura ◽  
D. Müller ◽  
R. M. Hoff ◽  
C. A. Hostetler ◽  
R. A. Ferrare ◽  
...  

Abstract. Retrievals of aerosol microphysical properties (effective radius, volume and surface-area concentrations) and aerosol optical properties (complex index of refraction and single-scattering albedo) were obtained from a hybrid multiwavelength lidar data set for the first time. In July 2011, in the Baltimore–Washington DC region, synergistic profiling of optical and microphysical properties of aerosols with both airborne (in situ and remote sensing) and ground-based remote sensing systems was performed during the first deployment of DISCOVER-AQ. The hybrid multiwavelength lidar data set combines ground-based elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 355 nm with airborne High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements at 532 nm and elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 1064 nm that were obtained less than 5 km apart from each other. This was the first study in which optical and microphysical retrievals from lidar were obtained during the day and directly compared to AERONET and in situ measurements for 11 cases. Good agreement was observed between lidar and AERONET retrievals. Larger discrepancies were observed between lidar retrievals and in situ measurements obtained by the aircraft and aerosol hygroscopic effects are believed to be the main factor in such discrepancies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. D. Zhang ◽  
F. Yi

Abstract. Several works concerning the dynamical and thermal structures and inertial gravity wave activities in the troposphere and lower stratosphere (TLS) from the radiosonde observation have been reported before, but these works were concentrated on either equatorial or polar regions. In this paper, background atmosphere and gravity wave activities in the TLS over Wuhan (30° N, 114° E) (a medium latitudinal region) were statistically studied by using the data from radiosonde observations on a twice daily basis at 08:00 and 20:00 LT in the period between 2000 and 2002. The monthly-averaged temperature and horizontal winds exhibit the essential dynamic and thermal structures of the background atmosphere. For avoiding the extreme values of background winds and temperature in the height range of 11-18km, we studied gravity waves, respectively, in two separate height regions, one is from ground surface to 10km (lower part), and the other is within 18-25km (upper part). In total, 791 and 1165 quasi-monochromatic inertial gravity waves were extracted from our data set for the lower and upper parts, respectively. The gravity wave parameters (intrinsic frequencies, amplitudes, wavelengths, intrinsic phase velocities and wave energies) are calculated and statistically studied. The statistical results revealed that in the lower part, there were 49.4% of gravity waves propagating upward, and the percentage was 76.4% in the upper part. Moreover, the average wave amplitudes and energies are less than those at the lower latitudinal regions, which indicates that the gravity wave parameters have a latitudinal dependence. The correlated temporal evolution of the monthly-averaged wave energies in the lower and upper parts and a subsequent quantitative analysis strongly suggested that at the observation site, dynamical instability (strong wind shear) induced by the tropospheric jet is the main excitation source of inertial gravity waves in the TLS.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document