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.

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.