Occurrence of Mesospheric Frontal Structures Over the High Latitude Station, Tromsø, Norway

Abstract

Observational data sets for the high latitude middle atmosphere are key to understand the dynamics over those latitudes and the coupling between the lower and middle atmosphere. Utilizing long‐term data sets from an all‐sky imager at Tromsø, Norway (69.6°N, 19.2°E), the characteristics of 18 mesospheric frontal events in the Arctic winter mesosphere from 2011 to 2015 were studied. These frontal events exhibit horizontal extensions exceeding 500 km and were characterized by a sharp leading front, sometimes followed by a quasi‐monochromatic wave train or a turbulent region. A subset of these frontal gravity wave events has been identified in the past as “bores.” While there have been numerous previous reports from low‐ and mid‐latitude sites, and also from southern high latitudes, there have been a few from northern high latitudes. This study focuses on the frontal events in the northern high latitudes and provides new insights into the characteristics of these events. Their horizontal wavelengths primarily ranged from 20 to 40 km, and they exhibited phase speeds in the range 30–80 m/s. Most events were observed before local midnight. No clear link between these events and auroral activity was found. The majority of fronts were found propagating in the north‐west direction, which might be due to the wind filtering effects.