Analysis of coastal lee waves along the coast of Texas observed in advanced very high resolution radiometer images

Abstract

Abstract. We examine a group of wave-like cloud patterns that occurred along the coast of Texas on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite advanced very high resolution radiometer IR images taken on January 22, 1999. These wave-like cloud patterns were interpreted to be signatures of a coastal lee wave packet on the basis of simultaneous field observations and theories developed by Zheng et al. [1998a]. The wave packet contains 13 waves with crest lines generally parallel to the coastline. The lengths of leading wave crest lines are longer than 500 km. The average wavelength is 9.5 km, ranging from 6.2 to 14.7 km. The width of the horizontal distribution band of the wave packet is as wide as 113 km. This case represents the most energetic coastal lee wave packet that has ever been reported.

Satellite observations of large atmospheric gravity waves in the Mozambique Channel

“…Particularly interesting is the fact that some AGWs have phase lines almost parallel to the Madagascar and Mozambique coastlines (see also propagation directions in the map provided in figure 6(b)). This feature may be an indication that some of the observed AGWs are generated as a result of land-sea surface thermal gradients (Zheng et al 1998, Li et al 2001. Satellite overpasses over the study region occur near local noon (approximately Terra/Envisat at 7:30 GMT and Aqua at 10:30 GMT, just after local noon).…”

“…No equivalent work has emerged since for atmospheric internal waves. Even so, the analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and other image data has been revealing that, atmospheric non-linear internal waves can be as ubiquitous as their oceanic look-alikes, for some regions (Thompson et al 1992, Vachon et al 1994, Alpers and Stilke 1996, Zheng et al 1998, Chunchuzov et al 2000, Li et al 2001. Also, particularly well-documented examples of atmospheric internal solitary-like waves are the Morning Glories from the Gulf of Carpentaria in north-eastern Australia (Clarke et al 1981, Smith and Morton 1984, Crook 1986, Crook 1988, Nooman and Smith 1985, Porter and Smyth 2002.…”

Lidar observations of atmospheric internal waves in the boundary layer of the atmosphere on the coast of Lake Baikal

“…Studies of the gravity waves are carried out with the help of space images of the cloud fields in the visible and microwave regions (for example, German, 1985;Li et al, 2001) and radar images of the sea surface (for example, Spiridonov et al, 1987;Chunchuzov et al, 2000). Experimental investigations of AGWs in the ionosphere from the scattering of radio waves are carried out using different methods (for example, Benediktov et al, 1997).…”

Merging daily sea surface temperature data from multiple satellites using a Bayesian maximum entropy method

“…In addition to the improvement of spatial coverage, another objective of merging SSTs is preserving the fine-scale spatial pattern of IR SST products, which can clearly reveal the small-scale spatial and temporal ocean structures associated with ocean currents and upwelling (Li et al, 2001c). To demonstrate the potential ability of merged SSTs in revealing the spatial-temporal evolution of smallscale structures, we plot a Hovmöller diagram (Fig.…”