Inertia gravity wave in the stratosphere and mesosphere observed by Doppler wind and temperature lidar

Abstract

We report on the first observation of persistent inertia gravity wave signatures in the horizontal wind and temperature by Doppler Rayleigh lidar in the middle atmosphere. The observations were performed at the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research station in northern Norway (69°N,16°E) between 21 and 23 January 2012. The measurements cover the altitude range from 20 km to about 80 km during nighttime and to about 70 km during daytime. We observe amplitudes of 5 to 25 m/s and 1 to 8 K in wind and temperature, respectively. The measured kinetic to potential energy density ratio is about 10, indicating that the majority of variability is due to waves with intrinsic frequencies close to the inertial frequency. The entire wavefield is mainly characterized by the presence of multiple waves; however, quasi‐monochromatic waves could be identified at limited times around 60 km altitude with a mean momentum flux in direction of propagation of 3.8 m2/s2.

Simultaneous and co-located wind measurements in the middle atmosphere by lidar and rocket-borne techniques

“…5), which is typical for the phase progression of gravity waves. In fact, we have shown in an earlier paper that DoRIS observations are very suitable to study gravity waves (Baumgarten et al, 2015). The remaining deviations in Fig.…”

“…Winds from DoRIS during daytime conditions are most likely also reliable since there is no apparent "jump" in the wind field when switching the lidar from a daytime to a nighttime setup, and vice versa (see Figs. 1 and 3 in Baumgarten et al, 2015). DoRIS offers new capabilities for atmospheric physics since, for the first time, it allows mean winds (and temperatures) as well as gravity waves to be monitored simultaneously, with high temporal and spatial resolution in the entire middle atmosphere.…”

“…We recall that mean vertical winds are on the order of millimeters and centimeters per second only, which can safely be ignored. On the other hand, gravity waves are expected to cause larger fluctuations in vertical winds and can indeed cause some of the wavy fluctuations observed by DoRIS (see Baumgarten et al, 2015, for more details). We will perform a more detailed analysis of gravity wave signatures in a later paper, including the application of hodograph techniques.…”

Gravity Waves excited during a Minor Sudden Stratospheric Warming

“…by a Rayleigh lidar, emulating a common type of observations during Arctic field campaigns (e.g. Baumgarten et al, 2015, Hildebrand et al, 2017.…”

On the Interpretation of Gravity Wave Measurements by Ground-Based Lidars

“…There are specific case studies, e.g., [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]; there are climatologies to determine the seasonal dependence of gravity wave activity or their relation to the atmospheric background conditions [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]; and there are studies developing the methodology to retrieve gravity wave signatures, e.g., [20]. Recently, the output of the high-resolution analyses of the Integrated Forecast System of the ECMWF was compared with lidar measurements in the middle atmosphere, e.g., [21].…”