Comparison of the CIRA 1990 planetary wave model to rocket temperature measurements

Abstract

The new CIRA 1990 contains a wave model for the quasi-stationary planetary waves 1 and 2. Comparison to rocket measurements shows that the wave model underestimates the wave activity during disturbed winter periods. An amendment of the CIRA wave model was therefore developed on the basis of data obtained during the DYANA campaign. This Improved Wave Model (IWM) uses lower stratosphere radiosonde measurements as input data to predict upper stratosphere and mesosphere temperature disturbances. Maximum amplitude of wave No. 1 of the IWM is higher than the CIRA amplitude by a factor of 3.2. The IWM was applied to a strongly disturbed part of the MAP/WINE campaign, and very satisfactory results were obtained. The IWM accounts for more than 70% of the data variance both during the DYANA and the MAP/WINE periods.