CIPS Observations of Gravity Wave Activity at the Edge of the Polar Vortices and Coupling to the Ionosphere

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AbstractA new Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) gravity wave (GW) variance data set is available that facilitates automated analysis of GWs entering the mesosphere. This work examines several years of CIPS GW variances from 50 to 55 km in the context of the Arctic and Antarctic polar vortices. CIPS observes highest GW activity in the vortex edge region where horizontal wind speeds are largest, consistent with previously published GW climatologies in the stratosphere and mesosphere. CIPS observes the well‐documented planetary wave (PW)‐1 patterns in GW activity in both hemispheres. In the Northern Hemisphere, maximum GW activity occurs over the North Atlantic and western Europe. In the Southern Hemisphere, maximum GW activity stretches from the Andes over the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as expected. In the NH, CIPS GW spatial patterns are highly correlated with horizontal wind speed. In the SH, CIPS GW patterns are less positively correlated with the winds due to increased zonal symmetry and orographic forcing. The Andes Mountains and Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia Island, Kerguelen/Heard Islands, New Zealand, and Tasmania are persistent sources of orographic GWs. Atmospheric Infrared sounder observations of stratospheric GWs are analyzed alongside CIPS to explore vertical GW coherence and to infer GW propagation and sources. NH midlatitude GW activity is reduced during the January 2021 SSW, as expected. This reduction in GWs leads to a simultaneous reduction in traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), providing more evidence that weak polar vortex events with weak GW activity leads to reduced daytime TID activity.