Abstract
Abstract. GPS radio occultation (RO) data have proved to be a great tool for atmospheric monitoring and studies. In the past decade, they were frequently used for analyses of the internal gravity waves in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region. Atmospheric density is the first quantity of state gained in the retrieval process and is not burdened by additional assumptions. However, there are no studies elaborating in detail the utilization of GPS RO density profiles for gravity wave analyses. In this paper, we introduce a method for density background separation and a methodology for internal gravity wave analysis using the density profiles. Various background choices are discussed and the correspondence between analytical forms of the density and temperature background profiles is examined. In the stratosphere, a comparison between the power spectrum of normalized density and normalized dry temperature fluctuations confirms the suitability of the density profiles' utilization. In the height range of 8–40 km, results of the continuous wavelet transform are presented and discussed. Finally, the limits of our approach are discussed and the advantages of the density usage are listed.
Highlights
Gravity waves in geophysical fluid dynamics are usually described as a group of wave motions in a fluid where the restoring force is gravity
We present a new method for the analysis of Internal gravity waves (IGWs) using density profiles
Let us have a background density profile ρ0(z) and assume that all departures from the background density are due to the response to the IGW-induced wind perturbations and are governed by the continuity equation
Summary
Gravity waves in geophysical fluid dynamics are usually described as a group of wave motions in a fluid where the restoring force is gravity (or so-called reduced gravity). Internal gravity waves (IGWs) as a part of them are of special importance in the atmosphere for their effects on atmospheric composition, circulation and dynamics in general. They can be pictured as being composed of oscillating interacting particles with mutually connected phases. The waves can propagate both horizontally and vertically under a continuous interplay between gravity and inertia and an exchange between potential and kinetic energy (Cushman-Roisin, 1994). A characteristic feature of their propagation is that the group and phase velocity are always perpendicular
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