Gravity wave activity in the stratosphere and mesosphere at the South Pole

Details Gravity wave activity in the stratosphere and mesosphere at the South Pole Gravity wave activity in the stratosphere and mesosphere at the South Pole

Aug 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995adspr..16...81c&link_type=abstract

Advances in Space Research (ISSN 0273-1177), vol. 16, no. 5, p. (5)81-(5)90

Computer Science

Sound

1

Antarctic Regions, Atmospheric Density, Atmospheric Sounding, Gravity Waves, Mesosphere, Oscillations, Sodium, Stratosphere, Backscattering, Fabry-Perot Spectrometers, Horizontal Distribution, Optical Radar, Radar Measurement, Radiosondes, Time Series Analysis, Wind (Meteorology), Winter

Scientific paper

A Rayleigh/resonant lidar was installed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole in December 1989 and made observations of the mesosphere and stratosphere through October 1990. The wintertime lidar observations yielded a high resolution data set of sodium (Na) density profiles in the mesosphere and polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) backscatter ratio profiles in the stratosphere. These observations illustrate a variety of wave phenomena present in the Antarctic middle atmosphere. The observations of the mesospheric Na layer were used to characterize gravity wave activity in the upper mesosphere between 80 and 105 km. Strong wave activity was observed throughout the winter and exhibited remarkable similarity with observations from lower latitude sites. The mean density variance at the South Pole was (6%)(sup 2), which is similar to that observed at a variety of lower latitude sites. Strong coherent oscillations were observed in the bottomside density contours of the Na layer with periods near the local inertial period. Fabry-Perot spectrometer measurements at South Pole confirm the presence of similar oscillations in the OH winds and temperatures and suggest that the oscillations are associated with planetary-scale waves. Stratospheric backscatter ratio profiles show downward motions similar to the phase progressions of upwardly-propagating gravity waves. Both backscatter ratio profiles and the radiosonde horizontal wind profiles show 1-5 km vertical structures with periods near the local inertial period. With no tropospheric convection during the polar night, and little orographic forcing over the relatively featureless Antarctic plateau, these observations suggest that geostrophic adjustment of the Antarctic stratospheric jet may be a major source of these gravity waves.

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