A study of the non-linear response of the upper atmosphere to episodic and stochastic acoustic-gravity wave forcing

Abstract:

Waves of various spatial and temporal scales, including acoustic waves, gravity waves, tides, and planetary waves, modify the dynamics of the terrestrial atmosphere at all altitudes. Perturbations caused by the natural and mankind activities on the ground, such as volcano eruptions, earthquakes, explosions, propagate upward and impact the upper atmosphere. Among these waves, propagation of the atmospheric acoustic waves is particularly sensitive to the fine structure of the background atmosphere. However, the fine-structured gravity waves (smaller than 1° x 1°) are currently poorly measured especially at the altitudes above 100 km and are computationally too expensive for most models to incorporate properly. The Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (GITM) allows for non-hydrostatic solutions and has a flexible resolution. Thus, it is ideal for the study of vertical propagating waves. In this study, the ionospheric and thermospheric response to acoustic-gravity waves is first presented with an artificial source of various frequencies, followed by a case study of the 2014 Tohoku tsunami. Additionally a time-varying spectral gravity wavefield propagated from the ground is implemented into GITM to capture the statistical background structures that is crucial to the upper atmospheric models. Our results show the importance of consideration of background small-scale structures to interpretation of the observed ionospheric and thermospheric perturbations, such as traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) and traveling atmospheric disturbances (TADs).