Methods of deducing intrinsic measurements of high frequency atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs)

Abstract

The direction, amplitude, and horizontal and vertical wavelengths are intrinsic attributes of Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs) propagating through the upper atmosphere. The observable airglow modulation has been related to intrinsic amplitude through the 'cancellation factor', the horizontal wavelength from image measurements, the observed directions from image motion fields. The vertical wavelength is traditionally obtained using the wave dispersion relationship from the intrinsic phase speed, which is deduced from the observed phase speed in images and the Doppler correction from measured winds with either Na lidar or meteor radar. Methods of extracting vertical wavelength can also be deduced from measurements of phase shift with altitude through multiple airglows. Tomographic and multiple layer methods have been modeled and data has been analyzed to validate the methods. The multiple layer method enables the measurements to be made from ground-based imagers where winds are note available, or from spacecraft where phase speeds can't be measured.