Reflectionless acoustic gravity waves in the Earth’s atmosphere

Abstract

The vertical wave propagation in an inhomogeneous compressible atmosphere is studied in the framework of a linear theory. Under specific conditions imposed on atmospheric parameters, solutions can be found in the form of travelling waves with variable amplitudes and wave numbers that do not reflect in the atmosphere in spite of its strong inhomogeneity. Model representations for the sound speed have been found, for which waves can propagate in the atmosphere without reflection. A wave energy flux retains these reflectionless profiles, which confirms that energy can be transferred to high altitudes. The number of these model representations is fairly large, which makes it possible to approximate real vertical distributions of the sound speed in the Earth’s atmosphere using piecewise reflectionless profiles. The Earth’s standard atmosphere is shown to be well approximated by four reflectionless profiles with weak jumps in the sound speed gradient. It has been established that the Earth’s standard atmosphere is almost completely transparent for the considered vertical acoustic waves in a wide range of frequencies, which is confirmed by observational data and conclusions derived using numerical solutions of original equations.