Abstract
Abstract. The International Monitoring System (IMS) has been established to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and comprises four technologies, one of which is infrasound. When fully established, the IMS infrasound network consists of 60 sites uniformly distributed around the globe. Besides its primary purpose of determining explosions in the atmosphere, the recorded data reveal information on other anthropogenic and natural infrasound sources. Furthermore, the almost continuous multi-year recordings of differential and absolute air pressure allow for analysing the atmospheric conditions. In this paper, spectral analysis tools are applied to derive atmospheric dynamics from barometric time series. Based on the solar atmospheric tides, a methodology for performing geographic and temporal variability analyses is presented, which is supposed to serve for upcoming studies related to atmospheric dynamics. The surplus value of using the IMS infrasound network data for such purposes is demonstrated by comparing the findings on the thermal tides with previous studies and the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2), which represents the solar tides well in its surface pressure fields. Absolute air pressure recordings reveal geographical characteristics of atmospheric tides related to the solar day and even to the lunar day. We therefore claim the chosen methodology of using the IMS infrasound network to be applicable for global and temporal studies on specific atmospheric dynamics. Given the accuracy and high temporal resolution of the barometric data from the IMS infrasound network, interactions with gravity waves and planetary waves can be examined in future for refining the knowledge of atmospheric dynamics, e.g. the origin of tidal harmonics up to 9 cycles per day as found in the barometric data sets. Data assimilation in empirical models of solar tides would be a valuable application of the IMS infrasound data.
Highlights
The International Monitoring System (IMS) was established to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which aims to ban all kinds of nuclear explosions (CTBTO Preparatory Commission, 2017a)
The Lomb–Scargle power spectral density (PSD) of the MERRA-2 time series is in good agreement
We intended to show the capability of this network for future applications on temporal and geographic variability studies of atmospheric dynamics and assumed to focus on the thermally forced tides by the Sun
Summary
The International Monitoring System (IMS) was established to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which aims to ban all kinds of nuclear explosions (CTBTO Preparatory Commission, 2017a). Insolation absorption by water vapour and ozone is seen as primary source of the migrating tides (Butler and Small, 1963; Chapman and Lindzen, 1970; Whiteman and Bian, 1996), but cloud effects, precipitation and latent heating are considered to be a source of tidal variations, especially for the semi-diurnal tide in the tropics (Dai and Wang, 1999). 6. The discussion included is focused on the potential of the IMS infrasound network for geographic variability analyses in the context of our findings and previous studies on atmospheric tides. The discussion included is focused on the potential of the IMS infrasound network for geographic variability analyses in the context of our findings and previous studies on atmospheric tides Whilst several of those studies addressed the tidal effects and characteristics in the middle
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