scholarly journals On the impact of middle-atmosphere thermal tides on the propagation and dissipation of gravity waves

2011 ◽  
Vol 116 (D24) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Senf ◽  
U. Achatz
2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (9) ◽  
pp. 3376-3391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Stephan ◽  
M. Joan Alexander

Abstract Gravity waves have important effects on the middle atmosphere circulation, and those generated by convection are prevalent in the tropics and summer midlatitudes. Numerous case studies have been carried out to investigate their characteristics in high-resolution simulations. Here, the impact of the choice of physics parameterizations on the generation and spectral properties of these waves in models is investigated. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) a summertime squall line over the Great Plains is simulated in a three-dimensional, nonlinear, and nonhydrostatic mesoscale framework. The distributions of precipitation strength and echo tops in the simulations are compared with radar data. Unsurprisingly, those storm features are most sensitive to the microphysics scheme. However, it is found that these variations in storm morphology have little influence on the simulated stratospheric momentum flux spectra. These results support the fundamental idea behind climate model parameterizations: that the large-scale storm conditions can be used to predict the spectrum of gravity wave momentum flux above the storm irrespective of the convective details that coarse-resolution models cannot capture. The simulated spectra are then contrasted with those obtained from a parameterization used in global climate models. The parameterization reproduces the shape of the spectra reasonably well but their magnitudes remain highly sensitive to the peak heating rate within the convective cells.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lainer ◽  
Klemens Hocke ◽  
Rolf Rüfenacht ◽  
Franziska Schranz ◽  
Niklaus Kämpfer

Abstract. Observations of oscillations in the abundance of middle atmospheric trace gases can provide insight into the dynamics of the middle atmosphere. Long term, high temporal resolution and continuous measurements of dynamical tracers within the strato- and mesosphere are rare, but would be important to better understand the impact of planetary and gravity waves on the middle atmosphere. Here we report on water vapor measurements from the ground-based microwave radiometer MIAWARA located close to Bern during two winter periods of 6 months from October to March. Oscillations with periods between 6 and 30 hours are analyzed in the pressure range 0.01–10 hPa. Seven out of twelve months have the highest wave amplitudes between 15 and 21 hour periods in the mesosphere above 0.1 hPa. The quasi 18-hour wave is studied in more detail. We examine the temporal behavior and use SD-WACCM simulations for comparison and to derive characteristic wave features considering low-frequency gravity-waves being involved in the observed water vapor oscillations. The 18-hour wave is also found in SD-WACCM horizontal wind data and in measured zonal wind from the microwave Doppler wind radiometer WIRA. For two cases in January 2016 we derive the propagation direction, intrinsic period, horizontal and vertical wavelength of the model resolved 18-hour wave. A south-westward to westward propagation with horizontal wavelengths of 1884 and 1385 km and intrinsic periods close to 14 h are found. Vertical wavelengths are below 6 km. We were not able to single out a distinct temporal correlation between 18-hour band-pass filtered water vapor and wind data time series, although H2O should mostly be dynamically controlled in the mesosphere and sub-diurnal time range. More sophisticated numerical model studies are needed to uncover the manifold effects of gravity waves on the abundance of chemical species.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 454
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Jakovlev ◽  
Sergei P. Smyshlyaev ◽  
Vener Y. Galin

The influence of sea-surface temperature (SST) on the lower troposphere and lower stratosphere temperature in the tropical, middle, and polar latitudes is studied for 1980–2019 based on the MERRA2, ERA5, and Met Office reanalysis data, and numerical modeling with a chemistry-climate model (CCM) of the lower and middle atmosphere. The variability of SST is analyzed according to Met Office and ERA5 data, while the variability of atmospheric temperature is investigated according to MERRA2 and ERA5 data. Analysis of sea surface temperature trends based on reanalysis data revealed that a significant positive SST trend of about 0.1 degrees per decade is observed over the globe. In the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the trend (about 0.2 degrees per decade) is 2 times higher than the global average, and 5 times higher than in the Southern Hemisphere (about 0.04 degrees per decade). At polar latitudes, opposite SST trends are observed in the Arctic (positive) and Antarctic (negative). The impact of the El Niño Southern Oscillation phenomenon on the temperature of the lower and middle atmosphere in the middle and polar latitudes of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is discussed. To assess the relative influence of SST, CO2, and other greenhouse gases’ variability on the temperature of the lower troposphere and lower stratosphere, numerical calculations with a CCM were performed for several scenarios of accounting for the SST and carbon dioxide variability. The results of numerical experiments with a CCM demonstrated that the influence of SST prevails in the troposphere, while for the stratosphere, an increase in the CO2 content plays the most important role.


2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 2537-2546 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Scinocca ◽  
Bruce R. Sutherland

Abstract A new effect related to the evaluation of momentum deposition in conventional parameterizations of orographic gravity wave drag (GWD) is considered. The effect takes the form of an adjustment to the basic-state wind about which steady-state wave solutions are constructed. The adjustment is conservative and follows from wave–mean flow theory associated with wave transience at the leading edge of the wave train, which sets up the steady solution assumed in such parameterizations. This has been referred to as “self-acceleration” and it is shown to induce a systematic lowering of the elevation of momentum deposition, which depends quadratically on the amplitude of the wave. An expression for the leading-order impact of self-acceleration is derived in terms of a reduction of the critical inverse Froude number Fc, which determines the onset of wave breaking for upwardly propagating waves in orographic GWD schemes. In such schemes Fc is a central tuning parameter and typical values are generally smaller than anticipated from conventional wave theory. Here it is suggested that self-acceleration may provide some of the explanation for why such small values of Fc are required. The impact of Fc on present-day climate is illustrated by simulations of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model.


2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1316-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.-D. Zhang ◽  
F. Yi ◽  
J.-F. Wang

Abstract. By analyzing the results of the numerical simulations of nonlinear propagation of three Gaussian gravity-wave packets in isothermal atmosphere individually, the nonlinear effects on the characteristics of gravity waves are studied quantitatively. The analyses show that during the nonlinear propagation of gravity wave packets the mean flows are accelerated and the vertical wavelengths show clear reduction due to nonlinearity. On the other hand, though nonlinear effects exist, the time variations of the frequencies of gravity wave packets are close to those derived from the dispersion relation and the amplitude and phase relations of wave-associated disturbance components are consistent with the predictions of the polarization relation of gravity waves. This indicates that the dispersion and polarization relations based on the linear gravity wave theory can be applied extensively in the nonlinear region.Key words: Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (middle atmosphere dynamics; waves and tides)


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 5045-5077 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Semeniuk ◽  
V. I. Fomichev ◽  
J. C. McConnell ◽  
C. Fu ◽  
S. M. L. Melo ◽  
...  

Abstract. The impact of NOx and HOx production by three types of energetic particle precipitation (EPP), auroral zone medium and high energy electrons, solar proton events and galactic cosmic rays on the middle atmosphere is examined using a chemistry climate model. This process study uses ensemble simulations forced by transient EPP derived from observations with one-year repeating sea surface temperatures and fixed chemical boundary conditions for cases with and without solar cycle in irradiance. Our model results show a wintertime polar stratosphere ozone reduction of between 3 and 10 % in agreement with previous studies. EPP is found to modulate the radiative solar cycle effect in the middle atmosphere in a significant way, bringing temperature and ozone variations closer to observed patterns. The Southern Hemisphere polar vortex undergoes an intensification from solar minimum to solar maximum instead of a weakening. This changes the solar cycle variation of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, with a weakening during solar maxima compared to solar minima. In response, the tropical tropopause temperature manifests a statistically significant solar cycle variation resulting in about 4 % more water vapour transported into the lower tropical stratosphere during solar maxima compared to solar minima. This has implications for surface temperature variation due to the associated change in radiative forcing.


1991 ◽  
Vol 96 (D3) ◽  
pp. 5169 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Wilson ◽  
M. L. Chanin ◽  
A. Hauchecorne

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 3633-3651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingfang Jiang ◽  
Shouping Wang

Abstract The impact of gravity waves on marine stratocumulus is investigated using a large-eddy simulation model initialized with sounding profiles composited from the Variability of American Monsoon Systems (VAMOS) Ocean–Cloud–Atmosphere–Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-Rex) aircraft measurements and forced by convergence or divergence that mimics mesoscale diurnal, semidiurnal, and quarter-diurnal waves. These simulations suggest that wave-induced vertical motion can dramatically modify the cloud albedo and morphology through nonlinear cloud–aerosol–precipitation–circulation–turbulence feedback. In general, wave-induced ascent tends to increase the liquid water path (LWP) and the cloud albedo. With a proper aerosol number concentration, the increase in the LWP leads to enhanced precipitation, which triggers or strengthens mesoscale circulations in the boundary layer and accelerates cloud cellularization. Precipitation also tends to create a decoupling structure by weakening the turbulence in the subcloud layer. Wave-induced descent decreases the cloud albedo by dissipating clouds and forcing a transition from overcast to scattered clouds or from closed to open cells. The overall effect of gravity waves on the cloud variability and morphology depends on the cloud property, aerosol concentration, and wave characteristics. In several simulations, a transition from closed to open cells occurs under the influence of gravity waves, implying that some of the pockets of clouds (POCs) observed over open oceans may be related to gravity wave activities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaru Yamamoto ◽  
Takumi Hirose ◽  
Kohei Ikeda ◽  
Masaaki Takahashi

<p>General circulation and waves are investigated using a T63 Venus general circulation model (GCM) with solar and thermal radiative transfer in the presence of high-resolution surface topography. This model has been developed by Ikeda (2011) at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI), the University of Tokyo, and was used in Yamamoto et al. (2019, 2021). In the wind and static stability structures similar to the observed ones, the waves are investigated. Around the cloud-heating maximum (~65 km), the simulated thermal tides accelerate an equatorial superrotational flow with a speed of ~90 m/s<sup></sup>with rates of 0.2–0.5 m/s/(Earth day) via both horizontal and vertical momentum fluxes at low latitudes. Over the high mountains at low latitudes, the vertical wind variance at the cloud top is produced by topographically-fixed, short-period eddies, indicating penetrative plumes and gravity waves. In the solar-fixed coordinate system, the variances (i.e., the activity of waves other than thermal tides) of flow are relatively higher on the night-side than on the dayside at the cloud top. The local-time variation of the vertical eddy momentum flux is produced by both thermal tides and solar-related, small-scale gravity waves. Around the cloud bottom, the 9-day super-rotation of the zonal mean flow has a weak equatorial maximum and the 7.5-day Kelvin-like wave has an equatorial jet-like wind of 60-70 m/s. Because we discussed the thermal tide and topographically stationary wave in Yamamoto et al. (2021), we focus on the short-period eddies in the presentation.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 6721-6732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunter Stober ◽  
Svenja Sommer ◽  
Carsten Schult ◽  
Ralph Latteck ◽  
Jorge L. Chau

Abstract. We present observations obtained with the Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System (MAARSY) to investigate short-period wave-like features using polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSEs) as a tracer for the neutral dynamics. We conducted a multibeam experiment including 67 different beam directions during a 9-day campaign in June 2013. We identified two Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) events from the signal morphology of PMSE. The MAARSY observations are complemented by collocated meteor radar wind data to determine the mesoscale gravity wave activity and the vertical structure of the wind field above the PMSE. The KHIs occurred in a strong shear flow with Richardson numbers Ri < 0.25. In addition, we observed 15 wave-like events in our MAARSY multibeam observations applying a sophisticated decomposition of the radial velocity measurements using volume velocity processing. We retrieved the horizontal wavelength, intrinsic frequency, propagation direction, and phase speed from the horizontally resolved wind variability for 15 events. These events showed horizontal wavelengths between 20 and 40 km, vertical wavelengths between 5 and 10 km, and rather high intrinsic phase speeds between 45 and 85 m s−1 with intrinsic periods of 5–10 min.


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