HR: 0800h
AN: A51B-0770    [Abstracts]
TI: Small-Scale Waves in AIRS Radiances and Temperature Retrievals
AU: * Alexander, M
EM: alexand@cora.nwra.com
AF: NorthWest Research Associates, Colorado Research Assoc. Div., 3380 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Barnet, C
EM: chris.barnet@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA NESDIS/ORA, 5200 Auth Road, Camp Springs, MD 20746 United States
AB: Small-scale gravity waves are ubiquitous features in atmospheric temperature observations. In satellite observations, these waves have been traditionally difficult to resolve. Recent advances in satellite instrument resolution coupled to innovative analysis techniques have lead to some new global data sets on these waves. Realization of the import effects of these small-scale waves in a wide variety of atmospheric processes has grown in tandem with the observations. These effects include wave-forcing of the general circulation, and initiation and modulation of tropical convection, among others. Their scales are in general too small to be quantified in the global radiosonde network, and too small to be modeled with accuracy in global atmospheric models. Although they appear with sometimes large amplitude in high-resolution versions of global forecasting and assimilation models, their properties are often unrealistic. The models can suffer from insufficient horizontal and vertical resolution, and can also generate gravity waves anomalously via large amplitude forecast model adjustments following data insertation. In this paper we present examples of the occurrence of short horizontal-scale waves appearing in AIRS radiance measurements and examine the corresponding temperature retrievals and high-resolution atmospheric assimilation temperature fields for similar wave structures. In some cases, the wave scales are too small to be resolved in the assimilation, while in other cases, waves appear in the assimilation where none appear in the data. We will examine the sources of the waves in both the model and data. Through our case studies, we will also test both the horizontal and vertical resolution in the temperature retrievals.
DE: 3329 Mesoscale meteorology
DE: 3337 Numerical modeling and data assimilation
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 3384 Waves and tides
DE: 3319 General circulation
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting