HR: 0830h
AN: SA51A-0495    [PDF]
TI: Case Studies of Mesopheric Gravity-Wave Breaking in Lidar Data
AU: * Franke, P
EM: pfranke@uiuc.edu
AF: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1308 West Main 322 CSL, Urbana, IL 61801 United States
AB: Lidar derived temperatures reveal dramatic episodes of gravity-wave breaking on every night during several campaigns at the Starfire Optical Range (SOR) in New Mexico, USA. Potential temperatures,derived assuming hydrostatic balance, reveal vertical parcel displacements of greater than 10 km over timescales of hours, as well as breaking events that create isentropic layers of kilometer thickness. These events results from complex interactions between intermediate period waves and the tidally determined background state. Both synoptic and spectral analyses will be presented that give insight into the dynamics of these events. Estimates of wave-associated vertical heat and momentum fluxes, calculated using lidar-doppler velocities, will also be shown.
DE: 3332 Mesospheric dynamics
DE: 3334 Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342)
DE: 3384 Waves and tides
SC: SPA - Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting