Longitudinal variation of tides in the MLT region: 1. Tides driven by tropospheric net radiative heating

Abstract

This study demonstrates that the diurnal cycle of net radiative heating in the troposphere accounts for considerable longitudinal variability of diurnal and semidiurnal tidal fields in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) (∼80–120 km), whereas previously it was thought that latent heating associated with deep tropical convection is the predominant driver of this variability. The heating rates used for this study are derived from radiative flux products by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), and the model employed to estimate the corresponding MLT tides is the Global‐Scale Wave Model (GSWM). The radiative flux products by NASA GISS utilize improved International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) cloud climatology and ancillary data sets and were validated by Earth radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) and Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) radiative flux (0.2–200.0 microns) measurements at the top of the atmosphere and the Earth surface. Typical magnitudes of tidal temperature longitude variations at, e.g., 95 km or 110 km are 20 ± 5 K for the diurnal tide and 6 ± 2 K for the semidiurnal tide. The computed tides and their longitude variability are of comparable amplitude to those derived from TIMED SABER temperature measurements. Part 2 of this study provides new estimates of tidal forcing by latent heating and assesses the total MLT tidal response to these combined heat sources in comparison to tidal climatologies derived from TIMED SABER measurements.