Gravity Wave Characteristics over the Equator Observed During the CPEA Campaign using Simultaneous Data from Multiple Stations

Abstract

The vertical and temporal variations of inertia-gravity waves are studied by means of an intensive radiosonde campaign conducted from 10 Apri1 to 9 May, 2004 at five sites, including the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) site at Koto Tabang (0.2°S, 100.32°E) in west Sumatra, Indonesia. The four other balloon sounding sites are located about 75-400 km away from EAR. Dominant gravity waves with periods of 2-3 days and vertical wavelengths ofapproximately 3-5 km showing clear downward phase propagation were detected, particularly in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region. The gravity wave energy is found to become the largest at an altitude of approximately 20 km, although the enhancement was not continuous, but intermittent. The wave activity was similar at all five sites, having only a slight phase shift, which suggests that the horizontal scale of the wave is larger than the distance between the sites. We have applied a correlative analysis to delineate the horizontal propagation characteristics of gravity waves, and estimated the horizontal wavelength (λh) to be approximately 1,700 km propagating toward 30° south from the east from 26-30 April, 2004, which is further verified by hodograph analysis for individual profiles. From 10-14 April, 2004 and 5-9 May, 2004, λh and the direction of the propagation were found to be 2,700 km and 3,250 km, and 26° and 3° north from the east, respectively. The spatial and temporal variations in the convection, which is thought to be a major source in the generation of gravity waves, is also studied using satellite data of outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR). We noticed clear eastward advection of large super cloud clusters (SCCs) from the Indian Ocean to the maritime continent, with occasional movement towards the observational sites. The source of the gravity waves is strongly related to this slowly eastward-advecting tropospheric convection, implying that the wave activity observed in the UTLS region was generated by far distant sources located west of the EAR. In addition, we present a case study in which large wave activity did not correspond to the particular cloud convection.