SM13B-2490
High Latitude Gravity Wave Forcing by the Disturbed Polar Vortex
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Dhvanit Mehta, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Edison, NJ, United States, Andrew J Gerrard, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, Edison, NJ, United States, Yusuke Ebihara, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan and Allan Thomas Weatherwax, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA, United States
Abstract:
We present mesopause gravity wave observations from 589-nm Na all-sky data taken by a multiwavelength all-sky imager located at South Pole, Antarctica. Focusing on gravity waves observed during the 2003 and 2004 austral winter seasons, we investigate possible sources of observed waves using linear gravity wave ray-tracing. By comparing wave ray paths with the structure of the polar vortex obtained from the ECMWF operational model, we show that a unique generator of gravity waves that then propagate into the high latitude mesospause is the disturbance of the polar vortex near 40-km altitude due to the formation of baroclinic instabilities.
