Abstract
Abstract. The temperature profiles of the satellite experiment Aura/MLS are horizontally spaced by 1.5° or 165 km along the satellite orbit. These level-2 data contain valuable information about horizontal fluctuations in temperature, which are mainly induced by inertia-gravity waves. Wave periods of 2–12 h, horizontal wavelengths of 200–1500 km, and vertical wavelengths of 6–30 km efficiently contribute to the standard deviation of the horizontal temperature fluctuations. The study retrieves and discusses the global distributions of inertia-gravity waves in the stratosphere and mesosphere during July 2015 and January 2016. We find many patterns that were previously present in data of TIMED/SABER, Aura/HIRDLS, and ECMWF analysis. However, it seems that Aura/MLS achieves a higher vertical resolution in the gravity wave maps since the maps are derived from the analysis of horizontal fluctuations along the orbit of the sounding volume. The zonal mean of the inertia-gravity wave distribution shows vertical modulations with scales of 10–20 km. Enhanced wave amplitudes occur in regions of increased zonal wind or in the vicinity of strong wind gradients. Further, we find a banana-like shape of enhanced inertia-gravity waves above the Andes in the winter mesosphere. We find areas of enhanced inertia-gravity wave activity above tropical deep convection zones at 100 hPa (z ∼ 13 km). Finally, we study the temporal evolution of inertia-gravity wave activity at 100 hPa in the African longitude sector from December 2015 to February 2016.
Highlights
Atmospheric gravity waves transfer momentum through the atmosphere, and the breaking of gravity waves changes the circulation of the atmosphere (Alexander et al, 2010)
The study showed that the dense horizontal sampling of the vertical temperature profiles from Aura/MLS allows the retrieval of the global distribution of inertia-gravity waves
Wave periods of 2–12 h, horizontal wavelengths of 200– 1500 km, and vertical wavelengths of 6–30 km efficiently contribute to the standard deviation of the horizontal temperature fluctuations
Summary
Atmospheric gravity waves transfer momentum through the atmosphere, and the breaking of gravity waves changes the circulation of the atmosphere (Alexander et al, 2010). High-frequency gravity waves can be generated by orography, jet streams and convective activity. Wu and Eckermann (2008) presented advanced global and regional distributions of high-frequency gravity wave activity. They evaluated the high-resolution data of ECMWF meteorological reanalysis. In the conclusions, they suggested a further study to retrieve inertia-gravity waves from the level-2 data of Aura/MLS. They suggested a further study to retrieve inertia-gravity waves from the level-2 data of Aura/MLS We follow this way and we present global distributions of inertia-gravity wave activity in the stratosphere and mesosphere. We are only aware of a study by Ern et al (2011) in which they presented global maps of gravity wave momentum flux at 70 km altitude retrieved from TIMED/SABER observations
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