Abstract In Vadas et al. (2024, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024ja032521 ), we modeled the atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) during 11–14 January 2016 using the HIAMCM, and found that the polar vortex jet generates medium to large‐scale, higher‐order GWs in the thermosphere. In this paper, we model the traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) generated by these GWs using the HIAMCM‐SAMI3 and compare with ionospheric observations from ground‐based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, Incoherent Scatter Radars (ISR) and the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). We find that medium to large‐scale TIDs are generated worldwide by the higher‐order GWs from this event. Many of the TIDs over Europe and Asia have concentric ring/arc‐like structure, and most of those over North/South America have planar wave structure and occur during the daytime. Those over North/South America propagate southward and are generated by higher‐order GWs from Europe/Asia which propagate over the Arctic. These latter TIDs can be misidentified as arising from geomagnetic forcing. We find that the higher‐order GWs that propagate to Africa and Brazil from Europe may aid in the formation of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) there. We find that the simulated GWs, TIDs and EPBs agree with EISCAT, PFISR, GNSS, and SuperDARN measurements. We find that the higher‐order GWs are concentrated at N at 200 km, in agreement with GOCE and CHAMP data. Thus the polar vortex jet is important for generating TIDs in the northern winter ionosphere via multi‐step vertical coupling through GWs.
Abstract The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard the NASA Aqua satellite is used to observe aurora associated with the CO 2 4.26 μm emission. These observations are due to non‐local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) resulting from the vibrational excitation of CO 2 , which arises in the process of auroral energetic particle precipitation, as opposed to the dayside NLTE occurring due to solar radiation. The observations are confirmed to be associated with aurora using the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) limb measurements and the SuperMAG Electrojet (SME) index. The high spectral resolution and low noise associated with the AIRS instrument allows for the emission spectrum to be calculated and confirmed to arise from CO 2 . Our new NLTE index values derived from AIRS provide the ability to globally measure auroral events associated with CO 2 with a spatial resolution on the order of ∼13.5 km.
DEEPWAVE is an international program designed to quantify gravity wave (GW) dynamics and effects from the ground to the upper mesosphere in unprecedented detail utilizing a range of airborne and ground-based measurements. DEEPWAVE was based on the South Island, New Zealand, to provide access to well-documented, but little understood, New Zealand and Tasmania “hotspots” as identified in satellite stratospheric measurements. Deep orographic GWs over New Zealand were a primary target, but multiple flights were also conducted over the Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea to quantify deep GW arising from convection, jet streams, and frontal systems.
This presentation highlights new airborne and ground-based results obtained using an Advanced OH Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) which creates high-quality intensity and temperature maps of a broad spectrum of mesospheric GWs. Two AMTM’s were employed, one sited at the NIWA Observatory, Lauder (45°S), on the South Island, and one on the NSF GV Gulfstream aircraft which was supplemented by two side viewing IR OH imagers providing large field, ~900 km cross-track, GW maps. These instruments formed part of a comprehensive measurements capability including airborne Rayleigh and Na lidars, dropsondes, ground-based Rayleigh lidar, all-sky imagers and wind measurements. A total of 25 long duration (typically 7-8 hours) nighttime flights were conducted creating an exceptionally rich data set. Here we focus on two key initial findings (a) discovery of large amplitude, mesospheric mountain waves and their intermittent wave breaking signatures, and (b) first measurements of large-field open-ocean mesospheric GW and their near-identical stratospheric wave signatures using AIRS satellite and model forecasting data.
Abstract On 14 July 2014 during the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE), aircraft remote sensing instruments detected large-amplitude gravity wave oscillations within mesospheric airglow and sodium layers at altitudes z ~ 78–83 km downstream of the Auckland Islands, located ~1000 km south of Christchurch, New Zealand. A high-altitude reanalysis and a three-dimensional Fourier gravity wave model are used to investigate the dynamics of this event. At 0700 UTC when the first observations were made, surface flow across the islands’ terrain generated linear three-dimensional wave fields that propagated rapidly to z ~ 78 km, where intense breaking occurred in a narrow layer beneath a zero-wind region at z ~ 83 km. In the following hours, the altitude of weak winds descended under the influence of a large-amplitude migrating semidiurnal tide, leading to intense breaking of these wave fields in subsequent observations starting at 1000 UTC. The linear Fourier model constrained by upstream reanalysis reproduces the salient aspects of observed wave fields, including horizontal wavelengths, phase orientations, temperature and vertical displacement amplitudes, heights and locations of incipient wave breaking, and momentum fluxes. Wave breaking has huge effects on local circulations, with inferred layer-averaged westward flow accelerations of ~350 m s−1 h−1 and dynamical heating rates of ~8 K h−1, supporting recent speculation of important impacts of orographic gravity waves from subantarctic islands on the mean circulation and climate of the middle atmosphere during austral winter.
