Infrasound from convective storms. III. Propagation to the ionosphere

Abstract

We model mathematically the spectral features of infrasound observed in the ionosphere and believed to be radiated by severe thunderstorms. We explain the dominant 2–5-min wave period as an effect of atmospheric filtering; shorter periods are excessively attenuated by absorption in transit to the ionosphere, and longer periods are attenuated in portions of the atmosphere where the waves are evanescent because their frequencies are below the acoustic cutoff. An observed spectral ’’fine structure’’ within the 2–5-min band is explained in terms of resonant interactions between the waves and the atmospheric temperature structure. Accurate quantitative modeling of all these details of the storm-to-ionosphere transmission coefficient requires numerical integration of the acoustic-gravity wave equation, including the effects of ground reflection, absorption, and partial reflections in the atmosphere. Subject Classification: [43]28.30.