SA13A-2337
Investigating Gravity Wave-Ionosphere Interactions Using The Transfer Function Model And An Ionosphere Model
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Robert J Bruntz1, Larry J Paxton1, Ethan S Miller1, Gary S Bust2 and Hans G Mayr3, (1)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (2)JHU Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Abstract:
The Transfer Function Model (TFM) has been used in numerous studies to simulate gravity waves. In the TFM, the time dependence is formulated in terms of frequencies, and the horizontal wave pattern on the globe is formulated in terms of vector spherical harmonics. For a wide range of frequencies, the equations of mass, energy and momentum conservation are solved to compile a transfer function. The transfer function can then be easily combined with a time-dependent source whose spatial extent is also expressed in spherical harmonics, to produce a global atmospheric response, including gravity waves. This approach has significant benefits in that the solution is grid-independent (without any inherent limits on resolution), and the solutions do not suffer from singularities at the poles. We will show results from our simulations that couple the output of the TFM to an ionospheric model, to predict traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) driven by the simulated gravity waves.
