scholarly journals Investigation of sources of gravity waves observed in the Brazilian equatorial region on 8 April 2005

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwakemi Dare-Idowu ◽  
Igo Paulino ◽  
Cosme A. O. B. Figueiredo ◽  
Amauri F. Medeiros ◽  
Ricardo A. Buriti ◽  
...  

Abstract. On 8 April 2005, strong gravity wave (GW) activity (over a period of more than 3 h) was observed in São João do Cariri (7.4∘ S, 36.5∘ W). These waves propagated to the southeast and presented different spectral characteristics (wavelength, period and phase speed). Using hydroxyl (OH) airglow images, the characteristics of the observed GWs were calculated; the wavelengths ranged between 90 and 150 km, the periods ranged from ∼26 to 67 min and the phase speeds ranged from 32 to 71 m s−1. A reverse ray-tracing analysis was performed to search for the possible sources of the waves that were detected. The ray-tracing database was composed of temperature profiles from the Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter (NRLMSISE-00) model and SABER measurements as well as wind profiles from the Horizontal Wind Model (HWM) and meteor radar data. According to the ray tracing result, the likely source of these observed gravity waves was the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which caused intense convective processes to take place in the northern part of the observatory. Also, the observed preferential propagation direction of the waves to the southeast could be explained using blocking diagrams, i.e. due to the wind filtering process.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwakemi Dare-Idowu ◽  
Igo Paulino ◽  
Cosme A. O. B. Figueiredo ◽  
Amauri F. Medeiros ◽  
Ricardo A. Buriti ◽  
...  

Abstract. On 08 April 2005, a strong gravity wave activity (more than 3 hours) was observed in São João do Cariri (7.4° S, 36.5° W). These waves propagated to the southeast and presented different spectral characteristics (wavelength, period and phase speed). Using OH airglow images, the parameters of 5 observed gravity waves were calculated; the wavelengths ranged from ~ 90 to 150 km, the periods from ~ 26 to 67 min and the phase speeds from 32 to 71 m/s. A reserve ray-tracing analysis was performed to investigate the likely sources of these waves. The ray-tracing database was composed of temperature profiles from NRLMSISE-00 model and SABER measurements and wind profiles from HWM-14 model and meteor radar data. According to the ray path, the likely source of these gravity waves was the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone with intense convective processes taking place in the northern part of the observatory. Also, the observed preferential propagation direction of the waves to the southeast could be explained using blocking diagrams, i.e., due to the wind filtering process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 2709-2721 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pramitha ◽  
M. Venkat Ratnam ◽  
A. Taori ◽  
B. V. Krishna Murthy ◽  
D. Pallamraju ◽  
...  

Abstract. Sources and propagation characteristics of high-frequency gravity waves observed in the mesosphere using airglow emissions from Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E) and Hyderabad (17.5° N, 78.5° E) are investigated using reverse ray tracing. Wave amplitudes are also traced back, including both radiative and diffusive damping. The ray tracing is performed using background temperature and wind data obtained from the MSISE-90 and HWM-07 models, respectively. For the Gadanki region, the suitability of these models is tested. Further, a climatological model of the background atmosphere for the Gadanki region has been developed using nearly 30 years of observations available from a variety of ground-based (MST radar, radiosondes, MF radar) and rocket- and satellite-borne measurements. ERA-Interim products are utilized for constructing background parameters corresponding to the meteorological conditions of the observations. With the reverse ray-tracing method, the source locations for nine wave events could be identified to be in the upper troposphere, whereas for five other events the waves terminated in the mesosphere itself. Uncertainty in locating the terminal points of wave events in the horizontal direction is estimated to be within 50–100 km and 150–300 km for Gadanki and Hyderabad wave events, respectively. This uncertainty arises mainly due to non-consideration of the day-to-day variability in the tidal amplitudes. Prevailing conditions at the terminal points for each of the 14 events are provided. As no convection in and around the terminal points is noticed, convection is unlikely to be the source. Interestingly, large (~9 m s−1km−1) vertical shears in the horizontal wind are noticed near the ray terminal points (at 10–12 km altitude) and are thus identified to be the source for generating the observed high-phase-speed, high-frequency gravity waves.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 3229-3240 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Wrasse ◽  
T. Nakamura ◽  
H. Takahashi ◽  
A. F. Medeiros ◽  
M. J. Taylor ◽  
...  

Abstract. Gravity wave signatures were extracted from OH airglow observations using all-sky CCD imagers at four different stations: Cachoeira Paulista (CP) (22.7° S, 45° W) and São João do Cariri (7.4° S, 36.5° W), Brazil; Tanjungsari (TJS) (6.9° S, 107.9° E), Indonesia and Shigaraki (34.9° N, 136° E), Japan. The gravity wave parameters are used as an input in a reverse ray tracing model to study the gravity wave vertical propagation trajectory and to estimate the wave source region. Gravity waves observed near the equator showed a shorter period and a larger phase velocity than those waves observed at low-middle latitudes. The waves ray traced down into the troposphere showed the largest horizontal wavelength and phase speed. The ray tracing results also showed that at CP, Cariri and Shigaraki the majority of the ray paths stopped in the mesosphere due to the condition of m2<0, while at TJS most of the waves are traced back into the troposphere. In summer time, most of the back traced waves have their final position stopped in the mesosphere due to m2<0 or critical level interactions (|m|→∞), which suggests the presence of ducting waves and/or waves generated in-situ. In the troposphere, the possible gravity wave sources are related to meteorological front activities and cloud convections at CP, while at Cariri and TJS tropical cloud convections near the equator are the most probable gravity wave sources. The tropospheric jet stream and the orography are thought to be the major responsible sources for the waves observed at Shigaraki.


2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 1355-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Coleman ◽  
Kevin R. Knupp ◽  
Daryl E. Herzmann

Abstract On 6 May 2007, an intense atmospheric undular bore moved over eastern Iowa. A “Webcam” in Tama, Iowa, captured dramatic images of the effects of the bore and associated gravity waves on cloud features, because its viewing angle was almost normal to the propagation direction of the waves. The time lapse of these images has become a well-known illustration of atmospheric gravity waves. The environment was favorable for bore formation, with a wave-reflecting unstable layer above a low-level stable layer. Surface pressure and wind data are correlated for the waves in the bore, and horizontal wind oscillations are also shown by Doppler radar data. Quantitative analysis of the time-lapse photography shows that the sky brightens in wave troughs because of subsidence and darkens in wave ridges because of ascent.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Yuan Wang ◽  
Lifeng Zhang ◽  
Jun Peng ◽  
Yun Zhang ◽  
Tongfeng Wei

Spectral characteristics of lower-stratospheric gravity waves generated in idealized mei-yu front and tropical cyclone (TC) are compared by performing high-resolution simulations. The results suggest that the systems which organize convection in different forms can generate waves with distinctly different presentation. The mei-yu front appears as a linear zonal wave source and gravity waves are dominated by cross-frontal (meridional) propagating components. The northward (southward) components have dominant meridional wavelengths of 125–333 km (>250 km), periods of 100–200 min (83–143 min), and phase speeds of 0–15 m s−1 (15–20 m s−1). The TC appears as a point wave source and gravity waves propagate equally in various horizontal directions. The waves exhibit greater power and broader spectral distributions compared with those in the mei-yu front, with dominant horizontal wavelengths longer than 62.5 km, periods of 33–600 min, and phase speeds slower than ~40 m s−1.


2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 2156-2172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Grare ◽  
Luc Lenain ◽  
W. Kendall Melville

Abstract An analysis of coherent measurements of winds and waves from data collected during the Office of Naval Research (ONR) High-Resolution air–sea interaction (HiRes) program, from the Floating Instrument Platform (R/P FLIP), off the coast of northern California in June 2010 is presented. A suite of wind and wave measuring systems was deployed to resolve the modulation of the marine atmospheric boundary layer by waves. Spectral analysis of the data provided the wave-induced components of the wind velocity for various wind–wave conditions. The power spectral density, the amplitude, and the phase (relative to the waves) of these wave-induced components are computed and bin averaged over spectral wave age c/U(z) or c/u*, where c is the linear phase speed of the waves, U(z) is the mean wind speed measured at the height z of the anemometer, and u* is the friction velocity in the air. Results are qualitatively consistent with the critical layer theory of Miles. Across the critical height zc, defined such that U(zc) = c, the wave-induced vertical and horizontal velocities change significantly in both amplitude and phase. The measured wave-induced momentum flux shows that, for growing waves, less than 10% of the momentum flux at z ≈ 10 m is supported by waves longer than approximately 15 m. For older sea states, these waves are able to generate upward wave-induced momentum flux opposed to the overall downward momentum flux. The measured amplitude of this upward wave-induced momentum flux was up to 20% of the value of the total wind stress when Cp/u* &gt; 60, where Cp is the phase speed at the peak of the wave spectrum.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 1479-1484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Tomikawa

Abstract. A new method of obtaining power spectral distribution of gravity waves as a function of ground-based horizontal phase speed and propagation direction from airglow observations has recently been proposed. To explain gravity wave power spectrum anisotropy, a new gravity wave transmission diagram was developed in this study. Gravity wave transmissivity depends on the existence of critical and turning levels for waves that are determined by background horizontal wind distributions. Gravity wave transmission diagrams for different horizontal wavelengths in simple background horizontal winds with constant vertical shear indicate that the effects of the turning level reflection are significant and strongly dependent on the horizontal wavelength.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 6785-6799 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Réchou ◽  
S. Kirkwood ◽  
J. Arnault ◽  
P. Dalin

Abstract. Inertia-gravity waves with very short vertical wavelength (λz≤1000 m) are a very common feature of the lowermost stratosphere as observed by the 52 MHz radar ESRAD (Esrange MST radar) in northern Scandinavia (67.88° N, 21.10° E). The waves are seen most clearly in radar-derived profiles of buoyancy frequency (N). Here, we present a case study of typical waves from 21 February to 22 February 2007. Good agreement between N2 derived from radiosondes and by radar shows the validity of the radar determination of N2. Large-amplitude wave signatures in N2 are clearly observed by the radar and the radiosondes in the lowermost stratosphere, from 9 km to 14–16 km height. Vertical profiles of horizontal wind components and potential temperature from the radiosondes show the same waves. Mesoscale simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are carried out to complement the analysis of the waves. Good agreement between the radar and radiosonde measurements and the model (except for the wave amplitude) shows that the model gives realistic results and that the waves are closely associated to the upper-level front in an upper-troposphere jet–front system. Hodographs of the wind fluctuations from the radiosondes and model data show that the waves propagate upward in the lower stratosphere confirming that the origin of the waves is in the troposphere. The observations and modelling all indicate vertical wavelengths of 700 ± 200 m. The radiosonde hodograms indicate horizontal wavelengths between 40 and 110 km and intrinsic periods between 6 and 9 h. The wave amplitudes indicated by the model are however an order of magnitude less than in the observations. Finally, we show that the profiles of N2 measured by the radar can be used to estimate wave amplitudes, horizontal wavelengths, intrinsic periods and momentum fluxes which are consistent with the estimates from the radiosondes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 7617-7644
Author(s):  
In-Sun Song ◽  
Changsup Lee ◽  
Hye-Yeong Chun ◽  
Jeong-Han Kim ◽  
Geonhwa Jee ◽  
...  

Abstract. Effects of realistic propagation of gravity waves (GWs) on distribution of GW pseudomomentum fluxes are explored using a global ray-tracing model for the 2009 sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event. Four-dimensional (4D; x–z and t) and two-dimensional (2D; z and t) results are compared for various parameterized pseudomomentum fluxes. In ray-tracing equations, refraction due to horizontal wind shear and curvature effects are found important and comparable to one another in magnitude. In the 4D, westward pseudomomentum fluxes are enhanced in the upper troposphere and northern stratosphere due to refraction and curvature effects around fluctuating jet flows. In the northern polar upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere, eastward pseudomomentum fluxes are increased in the 4D. GWs are found to propagate more to the upper atmosphere in the 4D, since horizontal propagation and change in wave numbers due to refraction and curvature effects can make it more possible that GWs elude critical level filtering and saturation in the lower atmosphere. GW focusing effects occur around jet cores, and ray-tube effects appear where the polar stratospheric jets vary substantially in space and time. Enhancement of the structure of zonal wave number 2 in pseudomomentum fluxes in the middle stratosphere begins from the early stage of the SSW evolution. An increase in pseudomomentum fluxes in the upper atmosphere is present even after the onset in the 4D. Significantly enhanced pseudomomentum fluxes, when the polar vortex is disturbed, are related to GWs with small intrinsic group velocity (wave capture), and they would change nonlocally nearby large-scale vortex structures without substantially changing local mean flows.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
In-Sun Song ◽  
Changsup Lee ◽  
Hye-Yeong Chun ◽  
Jeong-Han Kim ◽  
Geonhwa Jee ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Effects of realistic propagation of gravity waves (GWs) on distribution of GW pseudomomentum fluxes are explored using a global ray-tracing model for the 2009 sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event. Four-dimensional (4D;&amp;#160;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;x&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;#8211;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;z&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;#160;and&amp;#160;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;t&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;) and two-dimensional (2D;&amp;#160;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;z&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;#160;and&amp;#160;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;t&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;) results are compared for various parameterized pseudomomentum fluxes. In ray-tracing equations, refraction due to horizontal wind shear and curvature effects are found important and comparable to one another in magnitude. In the 4D, westward pseudomomentum fluxes are enhanced in the upper troposphere and northern stratosphere due to refraction and curvature effects around fluctuating jet flows. In the northern polar upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere, eastward pseudomomentum fluxes are increased in the 4D. GWs are found to propagate more to the upper atmosphere in the 4D, since horizontal propagation and change in wave numbers due to refraction and curvature effects can make it more possible that GWs elude critical level filtering and saturation in the lower atmosphere. GW focusing effects occur around jet cores, and ray-tube effects appear where the polar stratospheric jets vary substantially in space and time. Enhancement of the structure of zonal wavenumber 2 in pseudomomentum fluxes in the middle stratosphere begins from the early stage of the SSW evolution. An increase in pseudomomentum fluxes in the upper atmosphere is present even after the onset in the 4D. Significantly enhanced pseudomomentum fluxes, when the polar vortex is disturbed, are related to GWs with small intrinsic group velocity (wave capture), and they would change nonlocally nearby large-scale vortex structures without substantially changing local mean flows.&lt;/p&gt;


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