Wave Propagation from Tropospheric Sources up to the Lower Thermosphere Observed by the DEEPWAVE Airborne Lidars and Correlative Instrumentation over the New Zealand Mountains and the Southern Ocean

Abstract:

During the DEEPWAVE campaign, the NCAR Gulfstream V research aircraft flew over New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Southern Ocean with research flights covering 33° in latitude (31S to 64S) and 40° in longitude (144E to 184E) during June and July 2014. During these flights, we operated a Rayleigh lidar for middle atmosphere temperature measurements and a narrowband, 2-frequency Na lidar for sodium density and temperature measurements. This platform allows high resolution horizontal/vertical cross sections of temperature covering most of the region from the surface to 105km and up to 20° in latitude or longitude per flight. Both lidars operated during 23 flights with 130 total hours of operation split between repeated cross sections over the Southern Alps to measure mountain waves, downstream flights to look at trailing waves from mountain and island sources, upstream flights for modeling predictability, and flights to the deep Southern Ocean to measure waves from polar vortex/jets/fronts. This presentation will summarize the lidar results and present measurements of large amplitude waves starting from their tropospheric sources through the stratosphere to their dissipation in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere.