Generation of secondary waves arising from nonlinear interaction between the quasi 2 day wave and the migrating diurnal tide

Theory and past observations have provided evidence that atmospheric tides and other global-scale waves interact nonlinearly to produce additional secondary waves throughout the space-atmosphere interaction region. However, few studies have investigated the generation region of nonlinearly generated secondary waves, and as a result, the manifestation and impacts of these waves are still poorly understood. This study focuses on the nonlinear interaction between the quasi 2 day wave (2dayW3) and the migrating diurnal tide (DW1), two of the largest global-scale waves in the atmosphere. The fundamental goals of this effort are to characterize the forcing region of the secondary waves and to understand how it relates to their manifestation on a global scale. First, the Fast Fourier Synoptic Mapping method is applied to Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics-Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry satellite observations to provide new evidence of secondary waves. These results show that secondary waves are only significant above 80 km. The nonlinear forcing for each secondary wave is then computed by extracting short-term primary wave information from a reanalysis model. The estimated nonlinear forcing quantities are used to force a linearized tidal model in order to calculate numerical secondary wave responses. Model results show that the secondary waves are significant from the upper mesosphere to the middle thermosphere, highlighting the implications for the atmosphere-space weather coupling. The study also concludes that the secondary wave response is most sensitive to the nonlinear forcing occurring in the lower and middle mesosphere and not coincident with the regions of strongest nonlinear forcing.