Doppler Sodar and Radar Wind-Profiler Observations Of Gravity-Wave Activity Associated with a Gravity Current

Abstract

Abstract Observations from two Doppler sodars and a radar wind profiler have been used in conjunction with data from a rawinsonde station and a mesoscale surface observation network to conduct a case study of a gravity current entering into an environment containing a nocturnal inversion and an elevated neutral layer. On the basis of synoptic and mesoscale analyses, it is concluded that the gravity current might have originated either as a scale-contracted cold front or as a gust front resulting from thunderstorm outflows observed very near the leading edge of a cold front. Despite this ambiguity, the detailed vertical structure of the gravity current itself is well resolved from the data. Moreover, the vertical velocity measurements provided by the sodars and the radar wind profiler at high time resolution have given unique information about the height structure of gravity waves excited by the gravity current. Although only wave periods, and not phase speeds or wavelengths, are directly measured, it is p...