Abstract. Using a nonlinear mechanistic global circulation model we analyze the migrating terdiurnal tide in the middle atmosphere with respect to its possible forcing mechanisms, i.e., the absorption of solar radiation in the water vapor and ozone band, nonlinear tidal interactions, and gravity wave–tide interactions. In comparison to the forcing mechanisms of diurnal and semidiurnal tides, these terdiurnal forcings are less well understood and there are contradictory opinions about their respective relevance. In our simulations we remove the wave number 3 pattern for each forcing individually and analyze the remaining tidal wind and temperature fields. We find that the direct solar forcing is dominant and explains most of the migrating terdiurnal tide's amplitude. Nonlinear interactions due to other tides or gravity waves are most important during local winter. Further analyses show that the nonlinear forcings are locally counteracting the solar forcing due to destructive interferences. Therefore, tidal amplitudes can become even larger for simulations with removed nonlinear forcings.
Abstract. The GPS radio occultation (RO) technique is used to study sporadic E (Es) layer plasma irregularities of the Earth's ionosphere on a global scale using GPS signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) profiles from the COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 satellite. The maximum deviation from the mean SNR can be attributed to the height of the Es layer. Es are generally accepted to be produced by ion convergence due to vertical wind shear in the presence of a horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field, while the wind shear is provided mainly by the solar tides. Here we present analyses of quarterdiurnal tide (QDT) signatures in Es occurrence rates. From a local comparison with mesosphere/lower thermosphere wind shear obtained with a meteor radar at Collm (51.3∘ N, 13.0∘ E), we find that the phases of the QDT in Es agree well with those of negative vertical shear of the zonal wind for all seasons except for summer, when the QDT amplitudes are small. We also compare the global QDT Es signal with numerical model results. The global distribution of the Es occurrence rates qualitatively agrees with the modeled zonal wind shears. The results indicate that zonal wind shear is indeed an important driving mechanism for the QDT seen in Es.
Abstract. Solar tides such as the diurnal and semidiurnal tide, are forced in the lower and middle atmosphere through the diurnal cycle of solar radiation absorption. This is also the case with higher harmonics like the quarterdiurnal tide (QDT), but for these also non-linear interaction of tides such as the self-interaction of the semidiurnal tide, or the interaction of terdiurnal and diurnal tides, are discussed as possible forcing mechanism. To shed more light on the sources of the QDT, 12 years of meteor radar data at Collm (51.3∘ N, 13∘ E) have been analyzed with respect to the seasonal variability of the QDT at 82–97 km altitude, and bispectral analysis has been applied. The results indicate that non-linear interaction, in particular self-interaction of the semidiurnal tide probably plays an important role in winter, but to a lesser degree in summer. Numerical modelling of 6 h amplitudes qualitatively reproduces the gross seasonal structure of the observed 6 h wave at Collm. Model experiments with removed tidal forcing mechanisms lead to the conclusion that, although non-linear tidal interaction is one source of the QDT, the major forcing mechanism is direct solar forcing of the 6 h tidal components.
Abstract. We used a nonlinear mechanistic global circulation model to analyze the migrating quarterdiurnal tide (QDT) in the middle atmosphere with focus on its possible forcing mechanisms: the absorption of solar radiation by ozone and water vapor, nonlinear tidal interactions, and gravity wave–tide interactions. We show a climatology of the QDT amplitudes, and we examine the contribution of the different forcing mechanisms to the QDT amplitude. To this end, we first extracted the QDT from the model tendency terms and then removed the respective QDT contribution from the different tendency terms. We find that the solar forcing mechanism is the most important one for the QDT; however, the nonlinear and gravity wave forcing mechanisms also play a role in autumn and winter, particularly at lower and middle latitudes in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Furthermore, destructive interference between the individual forcing mechanisms is observed. Therefore, tidal amplitudes become even larger in simulations with the nonlinear or gravity wave forcing mechanisms removed.
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