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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 11913-11917, 2011
www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/11913/2011/ doi:10.5194/acp-11-11913-2011 © Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
Observations of in-situ generated gravity waves during a stratospheric temperature enhancement (STE) event
1Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Newark, NJ 07102-1982, USA
2Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, 429 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0429, USA
Abstract. Evidence for in situ generated atmospheric gravity waves associated with a stratospheric temperature enhancement (STE) are presented. The signatures of two sets of gravity waves are observed by molecular-aerosol lidar in conjunction with the early December 2000 STE event above Sondrestrom, Greenland. The first set of gravity waves shows downward phase progression with a vertical wavelength of ~8 km while the second set shows upward phase progression with a vertical wavelength of ~9 km. With estimates of the background wind fields from synoptic analyses, the various intrinsic gravity wave parameters of these two wave structures are found. The observed wave features compare well to previous numerical modeling predictions.
Citation: Gerrard, A. J., Bhattacharya, Y., and Thayer, J. P.: Observations of in-situ generated gravity waves during a stratospheric temperature enhancement (STE) event, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 11913-11917, doi:10.5194/acp-11-11913-2011, 2011.