Quasi-Stationary Planetary Wave in the MLT During Summer

Abstract:

A network of 8 northern hemispheric SuperDARN radars (51-66N) has been used to study planetary wave activity in the mesosphere lower thermosphere (MLT). The meridional meteor winds from the longitudinally spaced SuperDARN network are used to derive the planetary wave activity with zonal wave numbers 1 and 2 in the polar summer MLT (~95 km). In addition planetary wave amplitudes throughout the middle atmosphere have been retrieved from the meridional wind data of the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application (MERRA) of the NASA Global Modelling and Assimilation Office. The fitting technique used to derive the planetary wave amplitudes will be presented, and it will be shown that there are strong quasi-stationary longitudinal differences in the strength of the meridional wind in the MLT during summer which can be described as a quasi-stationary planetary wave number 1. The ground-based network allows this planetary wave to be separated from tidal perturbations that are aliased in satellite observations, and the combination of these two data sets provides evidence that the mesopause planetary wave activity is produced in situ in the MLT rather than propagating upwards from lower altitudes. Finally, the impact of this planetary wave feature on Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC) and Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSE) will be discussed.