Gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming

An exceptionally deep upper-air sounding launched from Kiruna airport (67.82∘ N, 20.33∘ E) on 30 January 2016 stimulated the current investigation of internal gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in the Arctic winter 2015/16. The analysis of the radiosonde profile...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Atmospheric chemistry and physics Vol. 18; no. 17; pp. 12915 - 12931
Main Authors:	Dörnbrack, Andreas, Gisinger, Sonja, Kaifler, Natalie, Portele, Tanja Christina, Bramberger, Martina, Rapp, Markus, Gerding, Michael, Söder, Jens, Å½agar, Nedjeljka, JeliÄ, Damjan
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 07-09-2018 Copernicus Publications
Subjects:	Aerodynamics Airports Gravitational waves Gravity Gravity waves Gravity waves (Meteorology) Inertia Inertia gravity waves Internal gravity waves Internal waves Lower stratosphere Natural history Ozone Polar environments Polar vortex Propagation modes Radiosondes Stratosphere Stratospheric gravity waves Stratospheric sudden warmings Stratospheric warming Temperature Temperature fluctuations Two dimensional analysis Upper stratosphere Wave generation Wave packets Wave propagation Wavelet analysis Weather forecasting Winter Arctic Arctic region
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Summary:	An exceptionally deep upper-air sounding launched from Kiruna airport (67.82∘ N, 20.33∘ E) on 30 January 2016 stimulated the current investigation of internal gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in the Arctic winter 2015/16. The analysis of the radiosonde profile revealed large kinetic and potential energies in the upper stratosphere without any simultaneous enhancement of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric values. Upward-propagating inertia-gravity waves in the upper stratosphere and downward-propagating modes in the lower stratosphere indicated a region of gravity wave generation in the stratosphere. Two-dimensional wavelet analysis was applied to vertical time series of temperature fluctuations in order to determine the vertical propagation direction of the stratospheric gravity waves in 1-hourly high-resolution meteorological analyses and short-term forecasts. The separation of upward- and downward-propagating waves provided further evidence for a stratospheric source of gravity waves. The scale-dependent decomposition of the flow into a balanced component and inertia-gravity waves showed that coherent wave packets preferentially occurred at the inner edge of the Arctic polar vortex where a sub-vortex formed during the minor SSW.
ISSN:	1680-7324 1680-7316 1680-7324
DOI:	10.5194/acp-18-12915-2018