New perspectives on gravity wave remote sensing by spaceborne infrared limb imaging

Preusse, Peter; Schroeder, S.; Hoffmann, Lars; Ern, Manfred; Friedl-Vallon, Felix; Ungermann, Jörn; Oelhaf, H.; Fischer, H.; Riese, Martin

doi:10.5194/amt-2-299-2009

Cited by 75 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…If these pairs of altitude profiles are observed at almost the same location (horizontal separation of less than 300 km) and at the same time (within 1 min or less), the projection of the horizontal wavelength of the observed gravity wave on the satellite measurement track can be estimated from the vertical phase shift of the wave structures seen in both profiles (Ern et al, 2004). This estimate of the horizontal wavelength, however, is in most cases an upper estimate of the "true" horizontal wavelength of the gravity wave (Preusse et al, 2009a).…”

Section: Satellite Observations Of Gravity Wave Amplitudes Momentum mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Only gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths longer than about 100-200 km are visible for those instruments. For details about the observation geometry and the resulting sensitivity for gravity waves see, for example, Preusse et al (2009a) or Trinh et al (2015). Second, no directional information is available, and only absolute values of gravity wave momentum flux and potential drag can be derived.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Satellite observations of middle atmosphere gravity wave absolute momentum flux and of its vertical gradient during recent stratospheric warmings

Ern¹,

Trinh²,

Kaufmann³

et al. 2016

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are circulation anomalies in the polar region during winter. They mostly occur in the Northern Hemisphere and affect also surface weather and climate. Both planetary waves and gravity waves contribute to the onset and evolution of SSWs. While the role of planetary waves for SSW evolution has been recognized, the effect of gravity waves is still not fully understood, and has not been comprehensively analyzed based on global observations. In particular, information on the gravity wave driving of the background winds during SSWs is still missing.

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Section: Satellite Observations Of Gravity Wave Amplitudes Momentum mentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite observations of middle atmosphere gravity wave absolute momentum flux and of its vertical gradient during recent stratospheric warmings

Ern¹,

Trinh²,

Kaufmann³

et al. 2016

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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show abstract

“…Limb instruments have a good vertical resolution, which leads to high sensitivity to short-vertical-wavelength waves. However, the sensitivity for short horizontal wavelengths is reduced due to the limited horizontal resolution of current limb sounders (Preusse et al, 2009b). Furthermore, a single measurement track cannot be used to identify the horizontal propagation direction of the waves.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intercomparison of AIRS and HIRDLS stratospheric gravity wave observations

Meyer¹,

Ern²,

Hoffmann³

et al. 2018

Atmos. Meas. Tech.

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Abstract. We investigate stratospheric gravity wave observations by the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite and the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) aboard NASA's Aura satellite. AIRS operational temperature retrievals are typically not used for studies of gravity waves, because their vertical and horizontal resolution is rather limited. This study uses data of a high-resolution retrieval which provides stratospheric temperature profiles for each individual satellite footprint. Therefore the horizontal sampling of the high-resolution retrieval is 9 times better than that of the operational retrieval. HIRDLS provides 2-D spectral information of observed gravity waves in terms of along-track and vertical wavelengths. AIRS as a nadir sounder is more sensitive to short-horizontal-wavelength gravity waves, and HIRDLS as a limb sounder is more sensitive to short-vertical-wavelength gravity waves. Therefore HIRDLS is ideally suited to complement AIRS observations. A calculated momentum flux factor indicates that the waves seen by AIRS contribute significantly to momentum flux, even if the AIRS temperature variance may be small compared to HIRDLS. The stratospheric wave structures observed by AIRS and HIRDLS often agree very well. Case studies of a mountain wave event and a non-orographic wave event demonstrate that the observed phase structures of AIRS and HIRDLS are also similar. AIRS has a coarser vertical resolution, which results in an attenuation of the amplitude and coarser vertical wavelengths than for HIRDLS. However, AIRS has a much higher horizontal resolution, and the propagation direction of the waves can be clearly identified in geographical maps. The horizontal orientation of the phase fronts can be deduced from AIRS 3-D temperature fields. This is a restricting factor for gravity wave analyses of limb measurements. Additionally, temperature variances with respect to stratospheric gravity wave activity are compared on a statistical basis. The complete HIRDLS measurement period from January 2005 to March 2008 is covered. The seasonal and latitudinal distributions of gravity wave activity as observed by AIRS and HIRDLS agree well. A strong annual cycle at mid-and high latitudes is found in time series of gravity wave variances at 42 km, which has its maxima during wintertime and its minima during summertime. The variability is largest during austral wintertime at 60 • S. Variations in the zonal winds at 2.5 hPa are associated with large variability in gravity wave variances. Altogether, gravity wave variances of AIRS and HIRDLS are complementary to each other. Large parts of the gravity wave spectrum are covered by joint observations. This opens up fascinating vistas for future gravity wave research.

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“…In a companion paper Preusse et al (2009) show that IR limb imaging has the great potential for measuring direction-resolved gravity wave momentum flux.…”

Section: Dynamics Mode (D-mode)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The benefit of limb cloud imaging for infrared limb sounding of tropospheric trace gases

Adams

Spang²,

Preusse³

et al. 2009

Atmos. Meas. Tech.

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Abstract. Advances in detector technology enable a new generation of infrared limb sounders to measure 2-D images of the atmosphere. A proposed limb cloud imager (LCI) mode will detect clouds with a spatial resolution unprecedented for limb sounding. For the inference of temperature and trace gas distributions, detector pixels of the LCI have to be combined into super-pixels which provide the required signal-to-noise and information content for the retrievals. This study examines the extent to which tropospheric coverage can be improved in comparison to limb sounding using a fixed field of view with the size of the super-pixels, as in conventional limb sounders. The study is based on cloud topographies derived from (a) IR brightness temperatures (BT) of geostationary weather satellites in conjunction with ECMWF temperature profiles and (b) ice and liquid water content data of the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling-Europe (COSMO-EU) of the German Weather Service. Limb cloud images are simulated by matching the cloud topography with the limb sounding line of sight (LOS). The analysis of the BT data shows that the reduction of the spatial sampling along the track has hardly any effect on the gain in information. The comparison between BT and COSMO-EU data identifies the strength of both data sets, which are the representation of the horizontal cloud extent for the BT data and the reproduction of the cloud amount for the COSMO-EU data. The results of the analysis of both data sets show the great advantage of the cloud imager. However, because both cloud data sets do not present the complete fine structure of the real cloud fields in the atmosphere it is assumed that the results tend to underestimate the increase in Correspondence to: S. Adams (susanne.adams@uni-trier.de) information. In conclusion, real measurements by such an instrument may result in an even higher benefit for tropospheric limb retrievals.

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New perspectives on gravity wave remote sensing by spaceborne infrared limb imaging

Cited by 75 publications

References 40 publications

Satellite observations of middle atmosphere gravity wave absolute momentum flux and of its vertical gradient during recent stratospheric warmings

Satellite observations of middle atmosphere gravity wave absolute momentum flux and of its vertical gradient during recent stratospheric warmings

Intercomparison of AIRS and HIRDLS stratospheric gravity wave observations

The benefit of limb cloud imaging for infrared limb sounding of tropospheric trace gases

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