The 16-day wave in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere: simultaneous observations at Saskatoon (52°N, 107°W) and London (43°N, 81°W), Canada

Details The 16-day wave in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere: simultaneous observations at Saskatoon (52°N, 107°W) and London (43°N, 81°W), Canada The 16-day wave in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere: simultaneous observations at Saskatoon (52°N, 107°W) and London (43°N, 81°W), Canada

May 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002jastp..64.1287l&link_type=abstract

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 64, Issue 8-11, p. 1287-1307.

Physics

11

Scientific paper

Winds from MF radar observations (60-110km) at Saskatoon (52°N, 107°W) and London (43°N, 81°W), Canada, are processed to investigate the quasi 16-day (12-20 days) waves. The waves at both sites become prominent from late autumn to early spring (October-April) when the zonal background winds are eastward. Throughout the mesosphere they have amplitudes of 5-15m/s, with the zonal component being stronger than the meridional on average. And they exist over a large range of altitudes, generally attenuating with height up to 105 and 95km for Saskatoon and London, respectively. The summer wave activity, however, is weak and limited to a thin layer around the zonal zero-wind line (around 85km); at Saskatoon it is centred near this line but at London it can penetrate 5-10km into the westward flow. The local periods at lower altitudes are longer than that at higher ones, and periods at the two locations at the same time are usually not equal. Although in some situations the phases at London lead those at Saskatoon by tens of degrees, the general phase differences do not appear to have a simple pattern. The lack of coherence or correlation between the two locations for the wave amplitudes, heights of occurrence, and even periods are probably due to the longitudinal and latitudinal differences or localized wave activity. The vertical propagation characteristics for the 16-day wave show a standing wave structure from which the vertical wavelength of ~40-50km can be derived. This could be caused by interference of the incident wave from the lower atmosphere with the downward reflected wave from near the mesopause. When combining the zonal and meridional components, they demonstrate a quasi-polarization mode of either linear or elliptical characteristic. The possible reasons for these wave characteristics, such as the effect of the background wind, interaction with the gravity waves, and including dissipation and modulation processes, are discussed.

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