A mechanism of atmospheric ozone disturbance by internal gravity wave in a stratified shear flow

Abstract

In a number of experiments on ozone layer investigations, short-term ozone variations with periods of an hour or several hours at heights of 20–50 km were observed. We suppose that this phenomenon may originate due to the interaction of internal gravity waves with stratified shear flows in the vicinity of a critical layer, where the phase velocity of the wave is equal to the flow velocity. The amplitude and period of the ozone density oscillations are found in a gravity wave of constant amplitude, when the flow pattern near the critical layer is determined by nonlinearity, and viscosity effects are small. We have found that the density variation of the passive admixture of air can be comparable with the unperturbed density.