This paper presents the first results of the global long‐term potential energy and mean potential energy per unit mass associated to wave activity (WA) in the lower and middle stratosphere, obtained from Global Positioning System radio occultation (GPS‐RO) temperature profiles, retrieved during the last 5 years from the CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite. We excluded temperature variations corresponding to the wavelike character of the Quasi Biennial oscillation (QBO). Possible limitations and distortions expected from our analysis are pointed out. Systematic annual and interannual features, clearly evidenced through 5 years of observations as a function of height, latitude and time are shown. We confirm some previously reported characteristics, in particular interannual requiring a sufficiently long period of observation, in addition to others not reported yet. In particular, a general stronger (weaker) wave activity is observed associated to apparent vertical wavelengths longer (shorter) than 4 km. The tropical/extratropical signatures decrease/increase with increasing altitude. At equatorial latitudes, WA interannual enhancements, related to QBO, are observed just below zonal wind zero contours corresponding to westerly shears. A significant decrease of WA is seen where the zonal wind is minimum. Both at equatorial and middle latitudes, an increased WA appears close above the TP, following its annual height oscillation and above 30 km height. At higher latitudes, a systematic annual variation of WA is observed, exhibiting stronger enhancements in winter SH respect to NH, but in SH, taking place during late winter and early spring. This enhanced WA, associated during 2002 to the stratospheric warming observed in that year, appears here as a systematic annual stratospheric feature. Its intensity increases with altitude, from 25 to 35 km. Inertio‐gravity waves generated by geostrophic adjustment during the maximum of the southern polar vortex (polar night jet) between late August and mid‐ September, could constitute a main source of this WA enhancement.

Originally published as:Schmidt, T., Alexander, P., de la Torre, A. (2016): Stratospheric gravity wave momentum flux from radio occultations. Abstract Triples of GPS radio occultation (RO) temperature data are used to derive horizontal and vertical gravity wave (GW) parameters in the stratosphere between 20 km and 40 km from which the vertical flux of horizontal momentum is determined. Compared to previous studies using RO data, better limiting values for the sampling distance (Δd ≤250 km) and the time interval (Δt ≤15 min) are used. For several latitude bands the mean momentum fluxes (MFs) derived in this study are considerably larger than MF from other satellite missions based on horizontal wavelengths calculated between two adjacent temperature profiles along the satellite track. Error sources for the estimation of MF from RO data and the geometrical setup for the applied method are investigated. Another crucial issue discussed in this paper is the influence of different background separation methods to the final MF. For GW analysis a measured temperature profile is divided into a fluctuation and a background and it is assumed that the fluctuation is caused by GWs only. For the background separation, i.e., the detrending of large-scale processes from the measured temperature profile, several methods exist. In this study we compare different detrending approaches and for the first time an attempt is made to detrend RO data with ERA-Interim data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. We demonstrate that the horizontal detrending based on RO data and ERA-Interim gives more consistent results compared with a vertical detrending.

Capsule summaryThe SOUTHTRAC-GW airborne mission explored the dynamics of gravity waves in the region of the Southern Andes and Antarctic Peninsula during the extraordinary southern hemisphere SSW of September 2019.

Abstract. Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) is a well-established technique for obtaining global gravity wave (GW) information. RO uses GPS signals received by low Earth-orbiting satellites for atmospheric limb sounding. Temperature profiles are derived with high vertical resolution and provide a global coverage under any weather conditions, offering the possibility of global monitoring of the vertical temperature structure and atmospheric wave parameters. The six-satellite constellation COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 delivers approximately 2000 temperature profiles daily. In this study, we use a method to obtain global distributions of horizontal gravity wave wavelengths, to be applied in the determination of the vertical flux of horizontal momentum transported by gravity waves. Here, a method for the determination of the real horizontal wavelength from three vertical profiles is applied to the COSMIC data. The horizontal and vertical wavelength, the specific potential energy (E p ), and the vertical flux of horizontal momentum (MF) are calculated and their global distribution is discussed.

Large-amplitude internal gravity waves were observed using Rayleigh lidar temperature soundings above Rio Grande, Argentina ($$54^\circ \; \hbox {S}$$ 54 ∘ S , $$68^\circ \; \hbox {W}$$ 68 ∘ W ), in the period 16–23 June 2018. Temperature perturbations in the upper stratosphere amounted to 80 K peak-to-peak and potential energy densities exceeded 400 J/kg. The measured amplitudes and phase alignments agree well with operational analyses and short-term forecasts of the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), implying that these quasi-steady gravity waves resulted from the airflow across the Andes. We estimate gravity wave momentum fluxes larger than 100 mPa applying independent methods to both lidar data and IFS model data. These mountain waves deposited momentum at the inner edge of the polar night jet and led to a long-lasting deceleration of the stratospheric flow. The accumulated mountain wave drag affected the stratospheric circulation several thousand kilometers downstream. In the 2018 austral winter, mountain wave events of this magnitude contributed more than 30% of the total potential energy density, signifying their importance by perturbing the stratospheric polar vortex.

We discuss the global gravity wave (GW) activity expressed by the specific potential energy in the altitude range from 5 km below to 10 km above the tropopause, derived from GPS radio occultation data from CHAMP (2001–2008). The GW analysis is based on vertical detrending of the individual measured temperature profiles by applying a Gaussian filter in two different ways: (i) filtering of the complete temperature profiles and (ii) separate filtering of the profiles for the tropospheric and lower stratospheric parts. The separate filtering method significantly reduces the usually observed wave activity enhancement in the tropopause region which highly depends on the performance of the complete filtering method to reproduce the change in the temperature gradient at the tropopause. We only consider vertical wavelengths less than 10 km. The global mean potential energy in the tropopause region deduced with these different background temperatures will be analyzed, differences will be emphasized and possible error sources of the new method will be considered.

The horizontal averaging of global positioning system radio occultation retrievals produces an amplitude attenuation and phase shift in any plane gravity wave, which may lead to significant discrepancies with respect to the original values. In addition, wavelengths cannot be straightforwardly inferred due to the observational characteristics. If the waves produce small departures from spherical symmetry in the background atmosphere and under the assumption that the refractivity kernel may be represented by a delta function, an analytical expression may be derived in order to find how the retrieved amplitudes become weakened (against the original ones). In particular, we study the range of waves that may be detected and the consequent reduction in variance calculation, which is found to be around 19%. A larger discrepancy was obtained when comparing an occultation variance with the one computed from a numerical simulation of that case. Wave amplitudes can be better resolved when the fronts are nearly horizontal or when the angle between the occultation line of sight and the horizontal component of the wave vector approaches π/2. Short horizontal scale waves have a high probability of becoming attenuated or of not being detected at all. We then find geometrical relations in terms of the relative orientation between waves and sounding, so as to appropriately interpret wavelengths extracted from the acquired data. Only inertio‐gravity waves, which exhibit nearly horizontal fronts, will show small differences between detected and original vertical wavelengths. Last, we analyze the retrieval effect on wave phase and find a shift between original and detected wave that generally is nonzero and approaches π/4 for the largest horizontal wavelengths.

A significant wave activity in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere at midlatitudes (30–40S) above the Andes Range was recently detected from Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS RO) temperature profiles, retrieved from SAC‐C (Satélite de Aplicaciones Cientficas‐C) and CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellites. Previously, large amplitude, long vertical wavelength structures have been reported in this region, as detected from other limb‐sounding devices and have been identified as mountain waves (MWs). The capability of GPS RO observations to detect typical MWs with horizontal wavelengths shorter than 150 km, as well as the proper association of the observed wave activity to mountain forcing is put in doubt. Other three possible sources are discussed. In particular, the generation of inertio‐gravity waves by geostrophic adjustment near to a permanent jet situated above the mountains, may constitute another important mechanism in this region. These waves may possess longer horizontal and perhaps shorter vertical wavelengths than those typically expected in MWs and could be more easily detected from limb‐sounding profiles. The “jet” mechanism will be discussed in a second paper.