The 8-h tide in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere over Collm (51.3° N; 13.0° E), 2004–2011

The horizontal winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) at heights of about 80–100 km have been measured continuously since summer 2004 using an all-sky 36.2 MHz VHF meteor radar at Collm, Germany (51.3° N, 13° E). A climatology of the 8-h solar tide has been constructed from these data. The amplitude shows a seasonal behaviour with maximum values during the equinoxes, and it is generally increasing with altitude. The largest amplitudes are measured in autumn, partly reaching values up to 15 m s⁻¹. The phase, defined as the time of maximum eastward or northward wind, respectively, has earlier values in winter and later ones in summer. Except for summer, the phase difference between the zonal and meridional components is close to +2 h, indicating circular polarization of the tidal components. The vertical wavelengths are short in summer (~20 km) but significantly longer during the rest of the year. The terdiurnal tide is generally assumed to originate from either a terdiurnal component of solar heating or nonlinear interaction between the diurnal and semidiurnal tide. Analysing monthly means reveals positive correlation during the spring maximum, but negative correlation in autumn

Unexpectedly small semidiurnal tidal wind amplitudes in the mid-latitudemesopause region during September 2002

International audienceThe mesopause region monthly mean winds and semidiurnal tidal amplitudes and phases over Central Europe have been measured at Collm Observatory since September 1982. The regular annual cycle of the semidiurnal tidal amplitudes show maximum values during late August and September. In contrast to that, in autumn 2002 no enhancement of the tidal amplitudes was measured, while the autumn tidal phase transition occurred unusually early. Key words. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (middle atmosphere dynamics; waves and tides; climatology

Impact of intermittent gravity wave activity on the middle atmospheric circulation during boreal winter

Simulations of the circulation in the middle atmosphere during northern winter performed with a nonlinear, mechanistic, global circulation model show that the upper mesospheric jet is greatly overestimated and also the position with respect to latitude and height does not correspond to observations. Apart from that also the winter wind reversal in the mesopause region, evoked by breaking gravity waves (GWs), is located too low around 80km, but is observed to be usually around 100 km. These discrepancies are planned to be eliminated by modifying the distribution of GW amplitudes driving the GW parameterization. This distribution is currently based on potential GW energy data derived from GPS radio occultation measurements and has to be replaced by a distribution based on momentum flux estimates applying midfrequency approximation. The results show a weaker mesospheric jet more realistically tilted towards lower latitudes with height. Also the meridional circulation extending from the summer to the winter pole decelerates and less GWs are propagating into the mesosphere. By additionally varying the GW amplitudes in magnitude and time, the wind reversal is shifted upwards and the mesospheric jet is slowed down.Simulationen der Zirkulation der mittleren Atmosphäre während des nordhemisphärischen Winters unter Verwendung eines nicht-linearen mechanistischen globalen Zirkulationsmodells ergaben beim Vergleich mit Messungen, dass der simulierte, mesosphärische Jet stark überschätzt wird und dessen Position von den Beobachtungen abweicht. Die in der Mesopausenregion einsetzende Windumkehr, hervorgerufen durch brechende Schwerewellen, befindet sich in etwa 80 km anstatt in 100 km. Diese Diskrepanzen sollen eliminiert werden. Hierfür wird die Verteilung der Schwerewellenamplituden, die die Schwerewellenparametrisierung innerhalb des Modells antreibt, am oberen Rand der Troposphäre modifiziert. Diese basiert derzeit auf global beobachteten, zonal gemittelten Daten der potentiellen Energie von Schwerewellen abgeleitet aus GPS Radiookkultationsmessungen und soll durch eine auf Impulsflüssen basierende Verteilung ersetzt werden. Das Modellexperiment zeigt, dass der mesosphärische Jet mit der Höhe in Richtung niedriger Breiten geneigt ist und abgebremst wird. Zudem schwächt die Meridionalzirkulation vom Sommer- zum Winterpol leicht ab und weniger Schwerewellen dringen bis in die Mesosphäre vor. Zusätzlich wird durch zeitliche und unterschiedlich starke Variation der Schwerewellenamplitude die Windumkehr verlagert und der mesosphärische Jet abgebremst

Quasi-two-day wave in an unstable summer atmosphere - some numerical results on excitation and propagation

Based on numerical calculations we demonstrate that small changes in the smooth climatological background atmosphere may lead to an unstable mean zonal wind distribution in the summer middle atmosphere. We relate these changes to small ones because locations and power of the main circulation structures are conserved, except for the acceleration of the easterly jet in the stratosphere/mesosphere. The instability forces oscillations propagating westward with a period of about 2 days and zonal wave numbers s=3 and/or 4. There are variations in the mean zonal wind distribution due to the excitation and transient propagation of these waves, and the numerical results correspond to features of these variations observed in experimental studies. The growing waves tend to remove the source of excitation. This process is effective enough to reduce the strong easterly jet and to remove the strong negative gradient of the zonal mean potential vorticity in the region of the instability. Therefore, when these parameters are calculated as mean values over a long time interval, the obtained values are too small to provide the instability. Strong 2-day waves, in turn, are unstable and can generate secondary waves with longer periods and lower zonal wave numbers. This effect is only significant for extremely strong 2-day waves. Another process is found to be more effective to produce secondary waves. We demonstrated that the 2-day wave with s=3 forced by nonlinear interaction between the 10-14 day planetary waves and the 2-day wave of zonal wave number 4 is unstable. This wave instability generates secondary waves with amplitudes that are large enough to be observed by ground-based radars, for example

Piecewise linear trend detection in mesosphere/lower thermosphere wind time series

A piecewise linear model is developed to detect climatic trends and possible structural changes in time series with a priori unknown number and positions of breakpoints. The initial noise is allowed to be interpreted by the first- and second-order autoregressive models. The goodness of fit of candidate models, if the residuals are accepted as normally distributed white noise, is evaluated using the Schwarz Bayesian Information Criterion. The uncertainties of all modeled trend parameters are estimated using the Monte-Carlo method. The model is applied to the mesosphere/lower thermosphere winds obtained at Collm (52°N, 15°E) during 1960-2007. A persistent increase after ~1980 is observed in the annual mean zonal wind based on the primary model while only a weak positive trend arises in the meridional component. Major trend breakpoints are identified around 1968-71 and 1976-79 in both the zonal and meridional winds

Gravity wave flux modulation by planetary waves in a circulation model

Mit Hilfe eines Zirkulationsmodells der mittleren Atmosphäre wird die Ausbreitung der Quasi-Zwei-Tage-Welle simuliert. Das Modell verfügt über eine aktuelle Schwerewellenparametrisierung und ermöglicht daher die detaillierte Beschreibung der Wechselwirkung planetarer Wellen mit Schwerewellen. Bei Anwesenheit der Quasi-Zwei-Tage-Welle wird der Schwerewellenfluss mit der Periode von zwei Tagen und der räumlichen Struktur der Quasi- Zwei-Tage-Welle moduliert. Modellergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die Quasi-Zwei-Tage-Welle nicht gut in die untere Thermosphäre ausbreitet. Phasenvergleiche zwischen Quasi-Zwei-Tage-Welle und Divergenz des Eliassen-Palm-Flusses der Schwerewellen zeigen, dass dies eine Folge sekundärer Anregung der Quasi-Zwei-Tage-Welle durch brechende Schwerewellen ist, die außer Phase mit der Originalwelle erfolgt

Parameters of internal gravity waves in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere region derived from meteor radar wind measurements

International audienceA procedure of revealing parameters of internal gravity waves from meteor radar wind measurements is presented. The method is based on dividing the measuring volume into different parts and, using wavelet analysis, calculating the phase progression of frequency peaks in the vertical and horizontal direction. Thus, the distribution of vertical and horizontal wavelengths and directions of IGW energy propagation, using meteor radar data, has been obtained. The method was applied to a 4-month data set obtained in July and August, 1998 and 1999. As expected, the majority of waves have been found to propagate upwards, although a considerable number seem to propagate downwards as well. High-frequency (intrinsic periods T* of less than 2 h) waves are dominating. The distribution of waves over the course of an average day is only weakly structured, with weak maxima in the morning and evening

The sensitivity of the MUAM model to the variability of non-orographic gravity wave distributions

Numerical experiments with the Middle and Upper Atmosphere Model with modified parameterization settings were carried out to study the response of the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) wind circulation to the non-orographic gravity waves (GWs) originating from the lower atmosphere. The modification of the phase speed spectrum controls the height of the zonal wind reversal due to strengthening of the westerly winds. The simulation results obtained for various latitudinal distributions of the intensity of non-orographic GWs at the source level show that the zonal circulation is most sensitive to GWs variability at high latitudes. The latitudinal distribution of GW intensity, produced by the global distribution of convective processes and seasonal variations in GW sources, and modified phase speed spectrum made it possible to simulate the major zonal circulation structures observed by MLT wind radar.Numerische Experimente mit dem Middle and Upper Atmosphere Model mit modifizierten Parametriesierungseinstellungen wurden durchgeführt, um die Reaktion der Zirkulation der in der Mesosphäre / unteren Thermosphäre (MLT) auf nicht-orographische Schwerewellen (SW) zu untersuchen, die von der unteren Atmosphäre ausgehen. Die Modifikation des Phasengeschwindikeitsspektrums steuert die Höhe der zonalen Windumkehr aufgrund der Verstärkung der Westwinde. Die Simulationsergebnisse für verschiedene Breitenverteilungen der Intensität nicht-orographischer SW in Quellenhöhe zeigen, dass die zonale Zirkulation am stärksten auf SW-Variabilität in hohen Breiten reagiert. Die Breitenverteilung der SW-Intensität, die durch die globale Verteilung konvektiver Prozesse und saisonaler Variationen der SW-Quellen erzeugt wird, und das modifizierte Phasengeschwindkeitsspektrum ermöglichten es, die wichgsten zonalen Zirkulationsstrukturen zu simulieren, die von einem MLT-Windradar beobachtet wurden

Analyzing Arctic surface temperatures with Self Organizing-Maps: Influence of the maps size

We use ERA-Interim reanalysis data of 2 meter temperature to perform a pattern analysis of the Arctic temperatures exploiting an artificial neural network called Self Organizing-Map (SOM). The SOM method is used as a cluster analysis tool where the number of clusters has to be specified by the user. The different sized SOMs are analyzed in terms of how the size changes the representation of specific features. The results confirm that the larger the SOM is chosen the larger will be the root mean square error (RMSE) for the given SOM, which is followed by the fact that a larger number of patterns can reproduce more specific features for the temperature.Wir benutzten das künstliche neuronale Netzwerk Self Organizing-Map (SOM), um eine Musteranalyse von ERA-Interim Reanalysedaten durchzuführen. Es wurden SOMs mit verschiedener Musteranzahl verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass SOMs mit einer größeren Musteranzahl deutlich spezifischere Muster produzieren im Vergleich zu SOMs mit geringen Musteranzahlen. Dies zeigt sich unter anderem in der Betrachtung der mittleren quadratischen Abweichung (RMSE) der Muster zu den zugeordneten ERA Daten