Skip to main content
Article
Momentum flux estimates accompanying multi-scale gravity waves over Mt. Cook, New Zealand on 13 July 2014 during the DEEPWAVE campaign
Journal of Geophysical Research
  • Katrina Bossert, University of Colorado Boulder
  • David C. Fritts, GATS, Inc.
  • Pierre-Dominique Pautet, Utah State University
  • Bifford P. Williams, GATS, Inc.
  • Michael J. Taylor, Utah State University
  • Bernd Kaifler, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, German Aerospace Center
  • Andrea Dornbrack, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, German Aerospace Center
  • Iain M. Reid, University of Adelaide
  • Damian J. Murphy, Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment
  • Andrew J. Spargo, ATRAD Pty Ltd.
  • Andrew D. MacKinnon, ATRAD Pty Ltd.
Document Type
Article
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Publication Date
9-23-2015
Disciplines
Abstract

Observations performed with a Rayleigh lidar and an Advanced Mesosphere Temperature Mapper aboard the National Science Foundation/National Center for Atmospheric Research Gulfstream V research aircraft on 13 July 2014 during the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE) measurement program revealed a large-amplitude, multiscale gravity wave (GW) environment extending from ~20 to 90 km on flight tracks over Mount Cook, New Zealand. Data from four successive flight tracks are employed here to assess the characteristics and variability of the larger- and smaller-scale GWs, including their spatial scales, amplitudes, phase speeds, and momentum fluxes. On each flight, a large-scale mountain wave (MW) having a horizontal wavelength ~200–300 km was observed. Smaller-scale GWs over the island appeared to correlate within the warmer phase of this large-scale MW. This analysis reveals that momentum fluxes accompanying small-scale MWs and propagating GWs significantly exceed those of the large-scale MW and the mean values typical for these altitudes, with maxima for the various small-scale events in the range ~20–105 m2 s−2.

Comments

Publisher: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JD023197/epdf

Citation Information
Bossert K., Fritts D.C., Pautet P.-D., Williams B.P., Taylor M.J., Kaifler B., Dornbrack A., Reid I.M., Murphy D.J., Spargo A.J., and MacKinnon A.D., Momentum flux estimates accompanying multi-scale gravity waves over Mt. Cook, New Zealand on 13 July 2014 during the DEEPWAVE campaign, J. Geophys. Res., 120, 9323-9337, doi: 10.1002/2015JD023197, 2015