Mesospheric surf zone and temperature inversion layers in early November 1994

Abstract Carbon monoxide, temperature, and potential vorticity data (November, 1994) from the cryogenic infrared spectrometers and telescopes for the atmosphere (CRISTA) experiment are used to analyze the relationship between the mesospheric surf zone in the winter hemisphere and simultaneously observed thermal inversions just above. The observed upward propagating planetary waves rapidly decay when they approach the critical wind line in the upper mesosphere and a distinct surf zone is formed between 60–75 km. Above 85 km, the planetary wave activity increases again revealing an out-of-phase behavior with the waves below. This is likely due to momentum forcing associated with breaking gravity waves that have been filtered by the stratospheric and lower mesospheric planetary waves. The abrupt vertical phase shift of the planetary waves thus induces a strong vertical geopotential curvature that is sufficiently large, through hydrostatic equilibrium, to invert the thermal structure around 80 km. The CRISTA observations and their interpretation are consistent with simulations of the thermosphere–ionosphere–mesosphere-electrodynamics general circulation model (TIME-GCM) that was run for the same time period. Both the observation and the model results rather point to a more indirect, though essential, role of the gravity waves in the formation of the mesospheric inversion layers in early winter 1994.