scholarly journals Gravity waves observed from the Equatorial Wave Studies (EWS) campaign during 1999 and 2000 and their role in the generation of stratospheric semiannual oscillations

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 2481-2491 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Deepa ◽  
G. Ramkumar ◽  
B. V. Krishna Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Wave ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Propagation Characteristics ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Vertical Wavelength ◽  
Flow Acceleration ◽  
Equatorial Wave ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Phase Propagation ◽  
Rayleigh Lidar

Abstract. The altitude profiles of temperature fluctuations in the stratosphere and mesosphere observed with the Rayleigh Lidar at Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E) on 30 nights during January to March 1999 and 21 nights during February to April 2000 were analysed to bring out the temporal and vertical propagation characteristics of gravity wave perturbations. The gravity wave perturbations showed periodicities in the 0.5–3-h range and attained large amplitudes (4–5 K) in the mesosphere. The phase propagation characteristics of gravity waves with different periods showed upward wave propagation with a vertical wavelength of 5–7 km. The mean flow acceleration computed from the divergence of momentum flux of gravity waves is compared with that calculated from monthly values of zonal wind obtained from RH-200 rockets flights. Thus, the contribution of gravity waves towards the generation of Stratospheric Semi Annual Oscillation (SSAO) is estimated.

Application of the IDEMIX Concept for Internal Gravity Waves in the Atmosphere

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (10) ◽  
pp. 3601-3618
Author(s):  
B. Quinn ◽  
C. Eden ◽  
D. Olbers
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Wave Field ◽  
Gravity Wave ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Momentum Flux ◽  
Middle Atmosphere ◽  
Internal Gravity Waves ◽  
Wave Drag ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
The Mean

AbstractThe model Internal Wave Dissipation, Energy and Mixing (IDEMIX) presents a novel way of parameterizing internal gravity waves in the atmosphere. IDEMIX is based on the spectral energy balance of the wave field and has previously been successfully developed as a model for diapycnal diffusivity, induced by internal gravity wave breaking in oceans. Applied here for the first time to atmospheric gravity waves, integration of the energy balance equation for a continuous wave field of a given spectrum, results in prognostic equations for the energy density of eastward and westward gravity waves. It includes their interaction with the mean flow, allowing for an evolving and local description of momentum flux and gravity wave drag. A saturation mechanism maintains the wave field within convective stability limits, and a closure for critical-layer effects controls how much wave flux propagates from the troposphere into the middle atmosphere. Offline comparisons to a traditional parameterization reveal increases in the wave momentum flux in the middle atmosphere due to the mean-flow interaction, resulting in a greater gravity wave drag at lower altitudes. Preliminary validation against observational data show good agreement with momentum fluxes.

On strongly nonlinear gravity waves in a vertically sheared atmosphere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Sebastian Voelker ◽  
Mark Schlutow
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Wave ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Internal Gravity Wave ◽  
Internal Gravity Waves ◽  
Wave Drag ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Flow Strength ◽  
Weakly Nonlinear ◽  
Strongly Nonlinear ◽  
The Mean

<p>Internal gravity waves are a well-known mechanism of energy redistribution in stratified fluids such as the atmosphere. They may propagate from their generation region, typically in the Troposphere, up to high altitudes. During their lifetime internal waves couple to the atmospheric background through various processes. Among the most important interactions are the exertion of wave drag on the horizontal mean-flow, the heat generation upon wave breaking, or the mixing of atmospheric tracers such as aerosols or greenhouse gases.</p><p>Many of the known internal gravity wave properties and interactions are covered by linear or weakly nonlinear theories. However, for the consideration of some of the crucial effects, like a reciprocal wave-mean-flow interaction including the exertion of wave drag on the mean-flow, strongly nonlinear systems are required. That is, there is no assumption on the wave amplitude relative to the mean-flow strength such that they may be of the same order.</p><p>Here, we exploit a strongly nonlinear Boussinesq theory to analyze the stability of a stationary internal gravity wave which is refracted at the vertical edge of a horizontal jet. Thereby we assume that the incident wave is horizontally periodic, non-hydrostatic, and vertically modulated. Performing a linear stability analysis in the vicinity of the jet edge we find necessary and sufficient criteria for instabilities to grow. In particular, the refracted wave becomes unstable if its incident amplitude is large enough and both mean-flow horizontal winds, below and above the edge of the jet, do not exceed particular upper bounds.</p>

scholarly journals On strongly nonlinear gravity waves in a vertically sheared atmosphere

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Mark Schlutow ◽  
Georg S. Voelker
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Lower Layer ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Individual Layer ◽  
Strongly Nonlinear ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Stability

Abstract We investigate strongly nonlinear stationary gravity waves which experience refraction due to a thin vertical shear layer of horizontal background wind. The velocity amplitude of the waves is of the same order of magnitude as the background flow and hence the self-induced mean flow alters the modulation properties to leading order. In this theoretical study, we show that the stability of such a refracted wave depends on the classical modulation stability criterion for each individual layer, above and below the shearing. Additionally, the stability is conditioned by novel instability criteria providing bounds on the mean-flow horizontal wind and the amplitude of the wave. A necessary condition for instability is that the mean-flow horizontal wind in the upper layer is stronger than the wind in the lower layer.

Critical layers in accelerating two-layer flows

1988 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 429-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald B. Altman
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Single Mode ◽  
Shear Instability ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Velocity Measurements ◽  
Interfacial Wave ◽  
Flow Acceleration ◽  
Critical Layers ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Processing Software

A series of laboratory experiments on accelerating two-layer shear flows over topography is described. The mean flow reverses at the interface of the layers, forcing a critical layer to occur there. It is found that for a sufficiently thin interface, a slowly growing recirculating region, the ‘acceleration rotor’, develops on the interfacial wave at mean-flow Richardson numbers of O(0.5). This, in turn, can induce a secondary dynamical shear instability on the trailing edge of the wave. A single-mode, linear, two-layer numerical model reproduces many features of the acceleration rotor if mean-flow acceleration and bottom forcing are included. Velocity measurements are obtained from photographs using image processing software developed for the automated reading of particle-streak photographs. Typical results are shown.

scholarly journals ENSO Modulation of the QBO: Results from MIROC Models with and without Nonorographic Gravity Wave Parameterization

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 3893-3917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshio Kawatani ◽  
Kevin Hamilton ◽  
Kaoru Sato ◽  
Timothy J. Dunkerton ◽  
Shingo Watanabe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Wave ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
La Nina ◽  
Zonal Wavenumber

Abstract Observational studies have shown that, on average, the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) exhibits a faster phase progression and shorter period during El Niño than during La Niña. Here, the possible mechanism of QBO modulation associated with ENSO is investigated using the MIROC-AGCM with T106 (~1.125°) horizontal resolution. The MIROC-AGCM simulates QBO-like oscillations without any nonorographic gravity wave parameterizations. A 100-yr integration was conducted during which annually repeating sea surface temperatures based on the composite observed El Niño conditions were imposed. A similar 100-yr La Niña integration was also conducted. The MIROC-AGCM simulates realistic differences between El Niño and La Niña, notably shorter QBO periods, a weaker Walker circulation, and more equatorial precipitation during El Niño than during La Niña. Near the equator, vertical wave fluxes of zonal momentum in the uppermost troposphere are larger and the stratospheric QBO forcing due to interaction of the mean flow with resolved gravity waves (particularly for zonal wavenumber ≥43) is much larger during El Niño. The tropical upwelling associated with the Brewer–Dobson circulation is also stronger in the El Niño simulation. The effects of the enhanced tropical upwelling during El Niño are evidently overcome by enhanced wave driving, resulting in the shorter QBO period. The integrations were repeated with another model version (MIROC-ECM with T42 horizontal resolution) that employs a parameterization of nonorographic gravity waves in order to simulate a QBO. In the MIROC-ECM the average QBO periods are nearly identical in the El Niño and La Niña simulations.

scholarly journals Ageostrophic instability in rotating, stratified interior vertical shear flows

2014 ◽  
Vol 755 ◽  
pp. 397-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Wang ◽  
James C. McWilliams ◽  
Claire Ménesguen
Keyword(s):  
Energy Source ◽  
Kinetic Energy ◽  
Potential Energy ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Shear Flows ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Efficient Energy Transfer ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Inertia Gravity Waves

AbstractThe linear instability of several rotating, stably stratified, interior vertical shear flows $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}\overline{U}(z)$ is calculated in Boussinesq equations. Two types of baroclinic, ageostrophic instability, AI1 and AI2, are found in odd-symmetric $\overline{U}(z)$ for intermediate Rossby number ($\mathit{Ro}$). AI1 has zero frequency; it appears in a continuous transformation of the unstable mode properties between classic baroclinic instability (BCI) and centrifugal instability (CI). It begins to occur at intermediate $\mathit{Ro}$ values and horizontal wavenumbers ($k,l$) that are far from $l= 0$ or $k = 0$, where the growth rate of BCI or CI is the strongest. AI1 grows by drawing kinetic energy from the mean flow, and the perturbation converts kinetic energy to potential energy. The instability AI2 has inertia critical layers (ICL); hence it is associated with inertia-gravity waves. For an unstable AI2 mode, the coupling is either between an interior balanced shear wave and an inertia-gravity wave (BG), or between two inertia-gravity waves (GG). The main energy source for an unstable BG mode is the mean kinetic energy, while the main energy source for an unstable GG mode is the mean available potential energy. AI1 and BG type AI2 occur in the neighbourhood of $A-S= 0$ (a sign change in the difference between absolute vertical vorticity and horizontal strain rate in isentropic coordinates; see McWilliams et al., Phys. Fluids, vol. 10, 1998, pp. 3178–3184), while GG type AI2 arises beyond this condition. Both AI1 and AI2 are unbalanced instabilities; they serve as an initiation of a possible local route for the loss of balance in 3D interior flows, leading to an efficient energy transfer to small scales.

The Reflection of a Stationary Gravity Wave by a Viscous Boundary Layer

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 3363-3371 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Lott
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Gravity Wave ◽  
Richardson Number ◽  
Critical Level ◽  
Inviscid Limit ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Viscous Boundary Layer ◽  
Lee Waves ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Viscous Boundary

Abstract The backward reflection of a stationary gravity wave (GW) propagating toward the ground is examined in the linear viscous case and for large Reynolds numbers (Re). In this case, the stationary GW presents a critical level at the ground because the mean wind is null there. When the mean flow Richardson number at the surface (J) is below 0.25, the GW reflection by the viscous boundary layer is total in the inviscid limit Re → ∞. The GW is a little absorbed when Re is finite, and the reflection decreases when both the dissipation and J increase. When J > 0.25, the GW is absorbed for all values of the Reynolds number, with a general tendency for the GW reflection to decrease when J increases. As a large ground reflection favors the downstream development of a trapped lee wave, the fact that it decreases when J increases explains why the more unstable boundary layers favor the onset of mountain lee waves. It is also shown that the GW reflection when J > 0.25 is substantially larger than that predicted by the conventional inviscid critical level theory and larger than that predicted when the dissipations are represented by Rayleigh friction and Newtonian cooling. The fact that the GW reflection depends strongly on the Richardson number indicates that there is some correspondence between the dynamics of trapped lee waves and the dynamics of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities. Accordingly, and in one classical example, it is shown that some among the neutral modes for Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities that exist in an unbounded flow when J < 0.25 can also be stationary trapped-wave solutions when there is a ground and in the inviscid limit Re → ∞. When Re is finite, these solutions are affected by the dissipation in the boundary layer and decay in the downstream direction. Interestingly, their decay rate increases when both the dissipation and J increase, as does the GW absorption by the viscous boundary layer.

scholarly journals Seasonal variation of equatorial wave momentum fluxes at Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E)

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 985-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Sasi ◽  
V. Deepa
Keyword(s):  
Momentum Flux ◽  
Tropical Meteorology ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Flow Acceleration ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
Equatorial Wave ◽  
Autumnal Equinox ◽  
Waves And Tides ◽  
The Waves

Abstract. The vertical flux of the horizontal momentum associated with the equatorial Kelvin and Rossby-gravity waves are estimated from the winds measured by the Indian MST radar located at Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E) during September 1995 to August 1996 in the tropospheric and lower stratospheric regions for all four seasons. The present study shows that momentum flux values are greater during equinox seasons than solstices, with values near the tropopause level being  16 × 10-3, 7.4 × 10-3, 27 × 10-3 and 5.5 × 10-3 m2 s-2 for Kelvin waves and 5.5 × 10-3, 3.5 × 10-3, 6.7 × 10-3 and 2.1 × 10-3 m2 s-2 for RG waves during autumnal equinox, winter, vernal equinox and summer seasons, respectively. Using these momentum flux values near the tropopause level, acceleration of the mean flow in the stratosphere up to a 29 km height were computed following Plumb (1984), by considering the wave-meanflow interaction and the deposition of the momentum through the radiative dissipation of the waves. A comparison of the estimated mean-flow acceleration in the stratosphere compares well, except at a few height levels, with the observed mean-flow accelerations in the stratosphere derived from the radiosonde data from a nearby station.Key words. Meteorology and atmosphenic dynamics (tropical meteorology; waves and tides)

Numerical Modeling of Nonlinear Interactions of Spectral Components of Acoustic-Gravity Waves in the Middle and Upper Atmosphere

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai M. Gavrilov ◽  
Sergej P. Kshevetskii
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Upper Atmosphere ◽  
Jet Flows ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Nonlinear Interactions ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Wave Source ◽  
Acoustic Gravity Waves ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Wave Modes

<p>Acoustic-gravity waves (AGWs) measuring at big heights may be generated in the troposphere and propagate upwards. A high-resolution three-dimensional numerical model was developed for simulating nonlinear AGWs propagating from the ground to the upper atmosphere. The model algorithms are based on the finite-difference analogues of the main conservation laws. This methodology let us obtaining the physically correct generalized wave solutions of the nonlinear equations. Horizontally moving sinusoidal structures of vertical velocity on the ground are used for the AGW excitation in the model. Numerical simulations were made in an atmospheric region having horizontal dimensions up to several thousand kilometers and the height extention up to 500 km. Vertical distributions of the mean temperature, density, molecular viscosity and thermal conductivity are specified using standard models of the atmosphere.</p><p>Simulations were made for different horizontal wavelengths, amplitudes and speeds of the wave sources at the ground. After “switch on” the tropospheric wave source, an initial AGW pulse very quickly (for several minutes) could propagate to heights up to 100 km and above. AGW amplitudes increase with height and waves may break down in the middle and upper atmosphere. Wave instability and dissipation may lead to formations of wave accelerations of the mean flow and to producing wave-induced jet flows in the middle and upper atmosphere. Nonlinear interactions may lead to instabilities of the initial wave and to the creation of smaller-scale perturbations. These perturbations may increase temperature and wind gradients and could enhance the wave energy dissipation.</p><p>In this study, the wave sources contain a superposition of two AGW modes with different periods, wavelengths and phase speeds. Longer-period AGW modes served as the background conditions for the shorter-period wave modes. Thus, the larger-scale AGWs can modulate amplitudes of small-scale waves. In particular, interactions of two wave modes could sharp vertical temperature gradients and make easier the wave breaking and generating  turbulence. On the other hand, small-wave wave modes might increase dissipation and modify the larger-scale modes.This study was partially supported by the Russian Basic Research Foundation (# 17-05-00458).</p>

scholarly journals Parametrization of momentum and energy depositions from gravity waves generated by tropospheric hydrodynamic sources

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 1570-1580 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. M. Gavrilov
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Internal Gravity Waves ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Energy Fluxes ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Turbulence Production

Abstract. The mechanism of generation of internal gravity waves (IGW) by mesoscale turbulence in the troposphere is considered. The equations that describe the generation of waves by hydrodynamic sources of momentum, heat and mass are derived. Calculations of amplitudes, wave energy fluxes, turbulent viscosities, and accelerations of the mean flow caused by IGWs generated in the troposphere are made. A comparison of different mechanisms of turbulence production in the atmosphere by IGWs shows that the nonlinear destruction of a primary IGW into a spectrum of secondary waves may provide additional dissipation of nonsaturated stable waves. The mean wind increases both the effectiveness of generation and dissipation of IGWs propagating in the direction of the wind. Competition of both effects may lead to the dominance of IGWs propagating upstream at long distances from tropospheric wave sources, and to the formation of eastward wave accelerations in summer and westward accelerations in winter near the mesopause.

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