Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wright, Corwin J
• Ungermann, Jörn
• Preusse, Peter
• Polichtchouk, Inna

Titel

Using sub-limb observations to measure gravity waves excited by convection

Ist Teil von

• NPJ microgravity, 2023-02, Vol.9 (1), p.14-14, Article 14

Ort / Verlag

United States: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Convective gravity waves are a major driver of atmospheric circulation, including the stratospheric and mesospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and the Brewer-Dobson circulation. Previous work shows clear evidence that these waves can be excited by both single convective cells and by mesoscale convective complexes acting as a single unit. However, the partitioning of the generated waves and, crucially for atmospheric model development, the flux of momentum they transport between these two types of excitation process remains highly uncertain due to a fundamental lack of suitable observations at the global scale. Here, we use both theoretical calculations and sampled output from a high-resolution weather model to demonstrate that a satellite instrument using a sub-limb geometry would be well suited to characterising the short-vertical short-horizontal gravity waves these systems produce, and hence to provide the scientific knowledge needed to identify the relative wave-driving contribution of these two types of convective wave excitation.