Testing linear gravity wave theory with simultaneous wind and temperature data from the mesosphere

Abstract

Linear gravity wave (GW) theory is tested on the basis of simultaneous measurements of horizontal winds from a medium frequency (MF) radar at Juliusruh (54.6°N, 13.4°E) and temperatures from combined Potassium (K) and Rayleigh–Mie–Raman (RMR) lidars at Kühlungsborn (54.1°N, 11.8°E). The applicability of linear GW theory to mesospheric observations is far from obvious given the fact that typically a whole spectrum of waves is observed which may interact non-linearly. Before analyzing our experimental dataset for its fit to expectations from linear GW theory, the chosen methodology is tested with model data from the Kühlungsborn Mechanistic general Circulation Model (KMCM). This model is a mechanistic general circulation model with high spatial resolution such that waves with horizontal wavelengths in excess of ∼350km are explicitly resolved yielding a semi-realistic wave motion field. This may be considered as a suitable test-bed for defining and optimizing wave analysis approaches. This effort reveals that Stokes parameters analysis of filtered time series of GW-induced wind and temperature fluctuations in comparison to wave amplitudes directly retrieved from the filtered time series allows us to demonstrate the validity of polarization relations based on linear wave theory. Indeed, applying the same methodology to the observations yields similarly conclusive results thus giving evidence for the applicability of linear wave theory to mesospheric observations after appropriate filtering. These investigations are complemented by a comparison of kinetic and potential energy per unit mass for model and measured data. This reveals that the ratio of kinetic and potential energy also roughly follows expectations from linear wave theory.