inertia gravity waves observed in the lower stratosphere over macquarie island abstract this study examines the properties of inertia gravity waves observed in the lower stratosphere over macquarie island how these properties vary with season and the likely source of the waves the waves are observed in high resolution upper air ozonesonde soundings of wind and temperature released from macquarie island during the 1994 ashoe maesa program the properties of the inertia gravity waves observed in the soundings are quantified using hodograph and rotary spectral analyses the analyzed waves have horizontal wavelengths between 100 and 1000 km vertical wavelengths between about 1 and 7 km intrinsic frequencies between f and 2f and horizontal trace speeds between 50 and 30 m s 1 there appears to be a seasonal cycle in the inertia gravity wave activity in the lower stratosphere the minimum being in the austral winter when the background zonal flow is strong and westerly and its vertical shear is positive in contrast the variance of the horizontal perturbation winds does not show a

a statistical study of gravity waves in the polar regions based on operational radiosonde data gravity waves in the lower polar stratosphere are examined using operational radiosonde observations gathered from 33 stations over a period of 10 years both the potential and kinetic energies of the gravity waves vary annually and reach maxima in winter in the arctic and in spring in the antarctic in the antarctic spring a region of large gravity wave energy propagates downward following the movement of a zone of high static stability associated with southern hemispheric warming moreover the enhanced energy region and the high stability zone coincide in the horizontal plane and move gradually from 135 e 50 s to 45 w 70 s over the south pole the vertical and horizontal directions of wave propagation are examined using hodograph analysis in the vertical most gravity waves transfer energy upward in the arctic while the percentage of downward energy propagation is relatively high in winter and spring in the antarctic horizontally gravity waves propagate westward relative to the mean wind in the arctic while in the antarctic the dominant direction varies from station to station the correlation between gravity wave energy in the lower stratosphere and the mean wind is also examined in the arctic gravity wave energy is highly correlated with the surface wind though in the antarctic it correlates with the stratospheric wind these results suggest that gravity waves observed in the arctic are forced by topography whereas in antarctica some sources may exist in the stratosphere one such source candidate is likely to be the polar night jet

an overview of indian sedimentary basins with special focus on emerging east coast deepwater frontiers this article will provide an overview of the current indian petroleum exploration scenario with special focus on the east coast deepwater basins an attempt has been made to distinguish the hydrocarbon system and play types for both rift related and other structural styles using high quality 2d and 3d seismic imaging information integrating the geologic information with state of the art seismic data has generated a large portfolio of play types e g channel levee complex lobes synrift structural closures and wedge outs against basement highs worthy of exploration

gravity wave generation around the polar vortex in the stratosphere revealed by 3 hourly radiosonde observations at syowa station intensive radiosonde observations were performed at syowa station 69 0 s 39 6 e over about 10 days in each of march june october and december 2002 to examine inertia gravity wave characteristics in the antarctic lower stratosphere based on the 3 hourly observation data two dimensional i e vertical wavenumber versus frequency spectra of wind fluctuations were examined utilizing a double fourier transform method clear signals of gravity waves whose phases propagate upward suggesting downward energy propagation are detected in june and october when the polar night jet pnj was present on the other hand downward phase propagation i e upward energy propagation components are dominant in all months there is a spectral peak around the inertial frequency in a wide range of vertical wavenumbers in december when the background wind was weak whereas large spectral densities are distributed over lower frequency regions in june and october these spectral characteristics are consistent with the results obtained using a gravity wave resolving global circulation model gcm by sato et al dynamical characteristics are examined separately for upward and downward propagating gravity waves in june using a hodograph analysis method as a result it is found that upward and downward propagating wave packets observed simultaneously in the same height regions have similar horizontal wavelengths and phase velocities this fact suggests that these gravity waves are generated from the same source with a similar mechanism when the wave packets were observed both the local rossby number and the residual in the nonlinear balance equation estimated using ncep ncar reanalysis data are large around the pnj situated slightly to the lower latitudes of syowa station therefore it is likely that the observed inertia gravity waves are generated by a spontaneous adjustment around the geostrophically unbalanced pnj and propagate toward syowa station the possibility of spontaneous gravity wave generation around the pnj is confirmed by comparison with the gcm simulation by sato et al

a gravity wave climatology for antarctica compiled from challenging minisatellite payload global positioning system champ gps radio occultations 1 the seasonal geographical and altitudinal dependence of gravity wave activity in the lower stratosphere over antarctica is presented gravity wave activity is estimated by calculating potential energy ep from radio occultation profiles obtained by the challenging minisatellite payload global positioning system champ gps experiment significant seasonal variation of wave activity is observed smaller wave activity in summer is attributed to waves with small phase velocities experiencing critical level filtering at other times of the year when wave activity is large less filtering occurs and the strong background wind is likely to cause doppler shifting of waves to longer vertical wavelengths which can reach larger amplitudes before saturating relationships between gravity wave activity and geographic location indicate that topography is a strong source for wave activity especially over the antarctic peninsula however wind rotation in this area was found to reduce the wave energy in summer at certain altitudes a strong enhancement of wave energy is observed at the edge of the polar vortex again reduced critical level filtering and doppler shifting in the area of the jet are likely to be major causes for this finding possible limitations to this study due to observational filtering are discussed

the horizontal kinetic energy spectrum and spectral budget simulated by a high resolution troposphere stratosphere mesosphere gcm abstract horizontal kinetic energy spectra simulated by high resolution versions of the geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory skyhi middle atmosphere general circulation model are examined the model versions considered resolve heights between the ground and 80 km and the horizontal grid spacing of the highest resolution version is about 35 km tropospheric kinetic energy spectra show the familiar 3 power law dependence on horizontal wavenumber for wavelengths between about 5000 and 500 km and have a slope of 5 3 at smaller wavelengths qualitatively similar behavior is seen in the stratosphere and mesosphere but the wavelength marking the transition to the shallow regime increases with height taking a value of 2000 km in the stratosphere and 4000 km in the mesosphere the global spectral kinetic energy budget for various height ranges is computed as a function of total horizontal wavenumber contributions to the kinetic energy tendency from nonlinear advective processes from conversion of avai

general aspects of a t213l256 middle atmosphere general circulation model 1 a high resolution middle atmosphere general circulation model gcm developed for studying small scale atmospheric processes is presented and the general features of the model are discussed the gcm has t213 spectral horizontal resolution and 256 vertical levels extending from the surface to a height of 85 km with a uniform vertical spacing of 300 m gravity waves gws are spontaneously generated by convection topography instability and adjustment processes in the model and the gcm reproduces realistic general circulation in the extratropical stratosphere and mesosphere the oscillations similar to the stratopause semiannual oscillation and the quasi biennial oscillation qbo in the equatorial lower stratosphere are also spontaneously generated in the gcm although the period of the qbo like oscillation is short 15 months the relative roles of planetary waves large scale gws and small scale gws in maintenance of the meridional structures of the zonal wind jets in the middle atmosphere are evaluated by calculating eliassen palm diagnostics separately for each of these three groups of waves small scale gws are found to cause deceleration of the wintertime polar night jet and the summertime easterly jet in the mesosphere while extratropical planetary waves primarily cause deceleration of the polar night jet below a height of approximately 60 km the meridional distribution and propagation of small scale gws are shown to affect the shape of the upper part of mesospheric jets the phase structures of orographic gws over the south andes and gws emitted from the tropospheric jet stream are discussed as examples of realistic gws reproduced by the t213l256 gcm

gravity waves in the tropical lower stratosphere a model study of seasonal and interannual variability a model study is presented to clarify the relationship between gravity wave properties observed in the stratosphere and the sources for the waves presumed to be in the troposphere the observations are balloon borne radiosondes launched from cocos island in the tropical indian ocean 12 s 97 e and the analysis of these data is described in a companion paper vincent and alexander this issue the dominant time variations in the observed gravity wave activity are annual and quasi biennial patterns in the zonal momentum flux and kinetic energy density the background zonal winds at this site vary with the same periods and these are known to be capable of causing dramatic variations in the observable properties of the waves even if the sources for the waves are constant in time the results presented here clarify 1 the nature of the sources for the gravity waves observed in the stratosphere 2 the limitations of the observations for observing the full range of gravity wave perturbations potentially present in the atmosphere and 3 the role the observed waves can play in forcing the quasibiennial oscillation qbo in the zonal winds at this latitude the stratospheric waves appear to originate near the height of the tropopause so the source is apparently related to deep convection no seasonal or interannual variations in the convection need be assumed to understand the observations the waves at the tropopause appear to have a phase speed distribution that is narrowly confined near zero phase speed relative to the ground the source is likely related to slowly propagating tropospheric convection and the wind near the tropopause variations observed in the stratospheric data are caused by both the wind shear in the stratosphere and the ability of waves with these characteristics to propagate vertically without severe dissipation higher phase speed waves may be present and could carry significant momentum flux vertically into the stratosphere and mesosphere but would be extremely difficult to see in these radiosonde data the observed waves can contribute substantially to the descent of the eastward shear zones characteristic of the westerly phase of the qbo in the lower stratosphere zonal winds

gravity waves in the tropical lower stratosphere an observational study of seasonal and interannual variability radiosonde observations made at cocos islands 12 s 97 e in the indian ocean between september 1992 and june 1998 are used to study seasonal and interannual variations in gravity wave activity in the lower stratosphere 18 25 km the islands are located in a region of generally strong convection that occurs at all times of the year with the period of strongest convective activity between december and july wet season the prevailing zonal winds during the observational period and height range are westward with a quasi biennial oscillation qbo superimposed time series of wave energy show that largest wave amplitudes occur during the wet season when convection is strongest but a qbo like variation is also apparent maximum energy densities of about 25 j kg 1 occur early 1993 1995 and 1997 at the times when the westward shears are largest wave energy is found to be propagating upward and in the horizontal there is considerable azimuthal anisotropy with predominate eastward propagation against the prevailing wind upward fluxes of zonal momentum flux u w are estimated by combining the temperature and wind information fluxes show a similar temporal behavior to the energy the motion and temperature fields are dominated by waves with vertical wavelengths 2 km using a stokes parameter analysis it is found that the intrinsic frequencies are on average 2 3 times the inertial frequency corresponding to intrinsic periods of 20 25 hours horizontal wavelengths between 200 and 2000 km are inferred with a mean value of about 1000 km the mean intrinsic phase speeds are about 10 ms 1 but ground based phase speeds are centered on 0 ms 1

energy enhancements of gravity waves in the antarctic lower stratosphere associated with variations in the polar vortex and tropospheric disturbances 1 gravity waves in the antarctic lower stratosphere are examined using original operational radiosonde data obtained at syowa station 69 0 s 39 6 e with fine vertical resolution in the lower stratosphere the temporal variation in gravity wave energy depends on height in the height region of 13 15 km just above the tropopause the seasonal variation in gravity wave energy is not evident the wave energy is rather enhanced when the absolute value of potential vorticity in the upper troposphere becomes small over syowa station this fact implies that tropospheric disturbances affect the dynamical processes of gravity waves there however the gravity wave energy in the height region of 15 25 km shows clear seasonal variation having a maximum in spring the time variation in gravity wave energy is examined in detail in terms of the polar vortex by using the equivalent latitude coordinate energy enhancements occur when the edge of the polar vortex approaches syowa station and the enhancements are especially large when the polar vortex breaks down in spring these results suggest that height variation in the background atmosphere leads to the difference of wave characteristics between the two height regions the enhancements of wave energy are partly explained as modification of the wave structure by the background wind speed and the static stability but it is also likely that enhancements of wave activity contribute to the energy enhancement at the edge of the polar vortex in spring

sources of gravity waves in the lower stratosphere above south pole 1 five year 2001 2005 high resolution radiosonde data were processed to obtain the gravity wave gw variabilities in the lower stratosphere over south pole sp our results show that gw activities in the lowermost section 10 15 km are strongest in may and september and weakest in the austral summer whereas in the altitude range of 15 25 km strongest weakest gw kinetic energy is observed around september january we also explored the relationships of gws to the synoptic scale variations in the troposphere and the ageostrophic motions in the upper troposphere over the antarctic which are expected to be significant mechanisms for gw generation a ray tracing model grograt was used to explore the relationship between gw propagation and the background field in the altitude of 15 25 km the annual cycle of gw activity resembles that of adjustment process below 15 km the annual cycle of gw activity has two peaks in may and september our analysis suggests that these two peaks are due to the variation of topographic gw generation and filtering of background atmosphere due to critical level filtering in the lowermost section topographic gws cannot propagate upward which makes the shape of gw annual cycle at higher altitudes closer to the annual cycle of adjustment processes the analysis suggests that the minimum of gw activity at sp during the austral summer may be due to the combination of weaker wave generation from adjustment processes associated with synoptic scale systems flow over topography and unfavorable background field for gw propagation

characteristics of atmospheric gravity wave activity in the polar regions revealed by gps radio occultation data with champ 1 using gps radio occultation data during 2001 2005 we studied the climatological behavior of atmospheric gravity waves in the polar stratosphere we calculated temperature fluctuations with vertical wavelengths shorter than 7 km and then determined the wave potential energy ep every month in a longitude latitude cell of 20 10 between 12 km and 33 km in the arctic region 50 90 n ep shows an annual variation with maximum in winter consistent with the zonal mean horizontal wind v and the eliassen palm e p flux fz the large fz values indicate higher planetary wave activity resulting in distortion of the polar vortex the unbalanced flow can then excite gravity waves through geostrophic adjustment in the antarctic region 50 90 s ep gradually increases during winter and reaches its maximum in spring before decreasing rapidly the time derivative of v coincides with the ep peak and the horizontal distribution of ep has a similar structure to v suggesting that the ep enhancement is closely related to the decay of the polar vortex during major warming events over the arctic the divergence of e p flux f was enhanced coinciding with large ep in the antarctic f strongly correlates with ep in spring gravity waves seem to be effectively generated through planetary wave transience and or breaking orographic generation of gravity waves seems to be important in limited areas only such as scandinavia and the antarctic peninsula showing that it is less important than the polar night jet in determining the climatological behavior of gravity waves

alleviation of a systematic westerly bias in general circulation and numerical weather prediction models through an orographic gravity wave drag parametrization systematic westerly biases in the northern hemisphere wintertime flow of the meteorological office 15 layer operational model and 11 layer general circulation model are described evidence that the failure to parametrize subgrid scale orographic gravity wave drag may account for such biases is presented this evidence is taken from aircraft studies surface pressure drag measurements and studies of the zonally averaged momentum budget a parametrization scheme is described in which the surface stress is proportional to the near surface wind speed and static stability and to the variance of subgrid scale orography the stress is absorbed in the vertical by considering the influence of such gravity wave activity on static stability and vertical wind shear a richardson number dependent wave breaking formulation is devised and the vertical stress profile determined by a saturation hypothesis whereby the breaking waves are maintained at marginal stability it is shown that wave breaking preferentially occurs in the boundary layer and in the lower stratosphere results from a simple zonally symmetric model show how the adjustment to thermal wind balance with a wave drag in the stratosphere warms polar regions by adiabatic descent and decelerates the mean westerlies in the troposphere the influence of the parametrization scheme on integrations of the 11 layer model is described and found to be generally beneficial in a discussion of the reasons why this problem has only recently emerged it is suggested that the satisfactory northern hemisphere winter circulations of previous coarser general circulation models were due to a compensation implied by underestimating both the surface drag and the horizontal flux of momentum by explicitly resolved large scale eddies

quasi lagrangian superpressure balloon measurements of gravity wave momentum fluxes in the polar stratosphere of both hemispheres 1 superpressure balloons were flown in 2002 and 2005 in the winter polar vortices of both hemispheres the balloons can drift for months in the stratosphere acting as quasi lagrangian tracers of air parcel motions the meteorological datasets acquired are used to retrieve small scale internal atmospheric gravity wave parameters using wavelet techniques for the first time gravity wave momentum fluxes are estimated over wide geographical areas and the results will help constrain gravity wave parameterization schemes used in general circulation climate models the importance of mountain waves is confirmed with largest fluxes observed in the lee of greenland and the antarctic peninsula however significant momentum fluxes are also observed over the oceans showing the importance of other wave generation mechanisms

nonorographic generation of arctic polar stratospheric clouds during december 1999 1 during december 1999 polar stratospheric clouds pscs were observed in the absence of conditions conducive to generation by topographic gravity waves the possibility is explored that pscs can be generated by inertia gravity waves igw radiating from breaking synoptic scale rossby waves on the polar front jet the aerosol features on 7 and 12 december are selected for comparison with theory and with simulations using the university of wisconsin nonhydrostatic modeling system uwnms consistent with rossby adjustment theory a common feature in the uwnms simulations is radiation of igw from the tropopause polar front jet especially from sectors which are evolving rapidly in the rossby wave breaking process packets of gravity wave energy radiate upward and poleward into the cold pool while individual wave crests propagate poleward and downward causing mesoscale variations in vertical motion and temperature on 12 december the eastbound dc 8 lidar observations exhibited a fairly uniform field of six waves in aerosol enhancement in the 14 20 km layer consistent with vertical displacement by a field of igw propagating antiparallel to the flow with characteristic horizontal and vertical wavelengths of 300 and 10 km uwnms simulations show emanation of a field of igw upward and southwestward from a northward incursion of the polar front jet the orientation and evolution of the aerosol features on 7 december are consistent with a single psc induced by an igw packet propagating from a breaking rossby wave over western russia toward the northeast into the coldest part of the base of the polar vortex with characteristic period 9 hours vertical wavelength 12 km and horizontal wavelength 1000 km linear theory shows that for both of these cases igw energy propagates upward at 1 km hour and horizontally at 100 km hour with characteristic trace speed 30 m s the spatial orientation of the psc along igw phase lines is contrasted with the nearly horizontal filamentary structures in the psc which are indicative of flow streamlines it is suggested that vertical displacement is a crucial factor in determining whether a psc will form and that most pscs are relatable to specific synoptic and mesoscale motions

gravity waves appearing in a high resolution gcm simulation global characteristics of gravity waves in the lower stratosphere are examined using a gcm with high resolution in both the horizontal t106 corresponding to about 120 km and the vertical 600 m the bottom boundary condition of the model is that of an aquaplanet with perpetual february sea surface temperature the simulated gravity waves are in good agreement with mesosphere stratosphere troposphere mst radar observations at a middle latitude on the gravity wave structure and on the frequency spectra as a function of height the frequency spectra of simulated wind and temperature fluctuations are also examined as a function of latitude large values of spectral density are observed at frequencies higher than the inertial frequency f in a weak wind region around 20 km which is consistent with the characteristics of internal gravity waves an isolated peak is observed near f for horizontal wind spectra at latitudes higher than 108 while the energy is distributed in a wide range of frequency at lower latitudes where f approaches zero further analysis is performed of those fluctuations having periods shorter than 24 h and those having vertical wavelengths smaller than 5 km these are frequently analyzed as gravity waves using observation data the distribution of energy and momentum fluxes in the latitude height section is examined the result indicates that short period waves mostly propagate upward and poleward from the equatorial region the wave energy reaches about 508 lat at the 27 km altitude a negative positive maximum of vertical flux of meridional momentum y9w9 is seen above the subtropical jet in the northern southern hemisphere for small vertical scale gravity waves this is consistent with the preferred equatorward propagation of the wave indicated by a statistical analysis based on mst radar observations the ratio of potential to kinetic energy maximizes over the equator and decreases poleward the eliassen palm flux divergence associated with gravity waves is decelerative above the subtropical jet albeit small

a meridional scan of the stratospheric gravity wave field over the ocean in 2001 messo2001 1 in order to examine gravity wave characteristics over the ocean we conducted a radiosonde observation campaign to scan the stratosphere meridionally over the middle pacific with hakuho maru research vessel operated by the ocean research institute university of tokyo seventy vertical profiles of temperature winds and humidity were successfully obtained over a wide latitude range of 28 n to 48 s with an interval of 1 degree gravity wave energy and vertical wavenumber spectra were examined as a function of latitude gravity wave energy is maximized in the tropical region where the convection is active and in the middle latitude region where the subtropical westerly jet is situated the wave energy in the tropical region is greater than the climatology based on operational radiosonde observation over land regions the gravity wave amplitude does not necessarily increase with altitude in contradiction to simple vertical propagation the latitudinal distribution of wave energy rather suggests that gravity waves propagate meridionally toward higher latitudes an interesting feature is that a wave packet having large horizontal wind and temperature amplitudes is observed continuously over 7 days in the latitudinal region extending 26 degrees results of hodograph analysis indicate that the wave packet is due to an inertia gravity wave with horizontal and vertical wavelengths of about 1800 km and 4 5km respectively this inertia gravity wave is likely generated in association with vigorous convection in the intertropical convergence zone itcz in the northern hemisphere and propagated southward interhemispherically the results in this study show that there are strong nonstationary gravity wave sources over the ocean the importance of meridionally propagating gravity waves is discussed

fluoride ion contamination in the groundwater of mithi sub district the thar desert pakistan groundwater samples were collected from various localities of mithi sub district of the thar desert of pakistan and analysed for fluoride ion along with other chemical parameters the area is mainly covered by sand dunes and kaolin granite at variable depths results showed that collected water samples were severely contaminated by the presence of fluoride ion and most of the samples have higher concentration than prescribed who standards 1 5 mg l for drinking water fluoride ion concentrations ranged between 0 09 and 11 63 mg l with mean and median values of 3 64 and 3 44 mg l respectively in this area whereas distribution pattern showed high concentrations in the vicinity of islamkot and mithi towns the content of f has also been correlated with other major ions found in the groundwater of the study area the positive correlation of f with na and hco3 showed that the water with high na and hco3 stabilizes f ions in the groundwater of the thar desert the ph versus f plots signifies high fluoride concentration at higher ph values implying that alkaline environment favours the replacement of exchangeable oh with f in the groundwater of mithi area the saturation indices si of fluorite caf2 and calcite caco3 in the groundwater samples showed that most of the samples are oversaturated with respect to calcite whereas majority of samples have been found under saturated with respect to fluorite the log tds and na na ca ratio reflected supremacy of weathering of rocks which promotes the availability of fluoride ions in the groundwater piper diagram has been used to classify the hydrofacies in the cation triangle all samples are na type while the anion triangle reflects major dominance of cl type with a minor influence of hco3 and so4

a general circulation model study of the orographic gravity waves over antarctica excited by katabatic winds 1 in this study we simulated orographic gravity waves ogws over antarctica using a t213l250 general circulation model gcm the gcm has a fine vertical resolution of 300 m throughout the middle atmosphere the simulation was run for a 1 year period results from 21 28 june were primarily considered ogws are excited by katabatic winds that travel down the surface slopes of the antarctic ice sheet a strong eastward katabatic wind blows over the west coast of the ross sea at the approach of the synoptic scale upper tropospheric westerly jets a quasi stationary ogw is then excited above the coast and propagates upward into the mesosphere an ogw appears sporadically during the antarctic winter and spring its amplitude is determined by the strength of the eastward katabatic wind dissipation of ogws within the middle atmosphere results in a localized deceleration of westerly winds greater than 30 m s 1 d 1 this in turn modifies the horizontal circulation in the polar vortex strong vertical mixing occurs within the mesosphere and is associated with wave breaking large temperature fluctuations associated with the ogws affect the formation or suppression of polar stratospheric clouds in the lower stratosphere katabatic wind excitation is the most powerful source of gravity waves over antarctica around the time of the winter solstice

generation of mesoscale gravity waves in upper tropospheric jet front systems abstract multiply nested mesoscale numerical simulations with horizontal resolution up to 3 3 km are performed to study the generation of mesoscale gravity waves during the life cycle of idealized baroclinic jet front systems long lived vertically propagating mesoscale gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths 100 200 km are simulated originating from the exit region of the upper tropospheric jet streak in a manner consistent with past observational studies the residual of the nonlinear balance equation is found to be a useful index in diagnosing flow imbalance and predicting wave generation the imbalance diagnosis and model simulations suggest that balance adjustment as a generalization of geostrophic adjustment is likely responsible for generating these mesoscale gravity waves it is hypothesized that through balance adjustment the continuous generation of flow imbalance from the developing baroclinic wave will lead to the continuous radiation of gravity waves

sensitivity of mesoscale gravity waves to the baroclinicity of jet front systems abstract this study investigates the sensitivity of mesoscale gravity waves to the baroclinicity of the background jet front systems by simulating different life cycles of baroclinic waves with a high resolution mesoscale model four simulations are made starting from two dimensional baroclinic jets having different static stability and wind shear in order to obtain baroclinic waves with significantly different growth rates in all experiments vertically propagating mesoscale gravity waves are simulated in the exit region of upper tropospheric jet streaks a two dimensional spectral analysis demonstrates that these gravity waves have multiple components with different wave characteristics the short scale wave components that are preserved by a high pass filter with a cutoff wavelength of 200 km have horizontal wavelengths of 85 161 km and intrinsic frequencies of 3 11 times the coriolis parameter the medium scale waves that are preserved by a bandpass filter with 200 and 600 km cutoff wavelengths ha

inertia gravity wave generation by the tropospheric midlatitude jet as given by the fronts and atlantic storm track experiment radio soundings 1 generation of inertia gravity waves by the midlatitude tropospheric jet is studied on the basis of the data obtained from the radio soundings over the north atlantic during the fronts and atlantic storm track experiment campaign a sample of 224 radio soundings is used to analyze the wave activity as a function of the distance to the jet it is shown that radio soundings displaying the most intense gravity wave activity both in the stratosphere and in the troposphere are the ones closest to the jet axis thus the jet region is the dominant source of gravity waves in this region far from orography further examination allows for identification of two specific regions of the flow that are associated with intense gravity wave activity the vicinity of the maximum of the jet velocity and the regions of strong curvature of the jet the detailed case studies we provide suggest that geostrophic adjustment is the dynamical mechanism responsible for the generation of large amplitude inertia gravity waves in the regions of the strong curvature of the wind the generation of waves in the vicinity of the regions where the wind veers in the deep troughs of the geopotential appears to be systematic

the synoptic setting and possible energy sources for mesoscale wave disturbances abstract thirteen case studies of mesoscale wave disturbances characterized by either a singular wave of depression or wave packets with periods of 1 4 h horizontal wavelengths of 50 500 km and surface pressure perturbation amplitudes of 0 2 7 0 mb are reviewed to isolate common synoptic features for these cases and to shed light on possible energy sources for the waves a strong thermal inversion in the lower troposphere north of a frontal boundary and a jet streak propagating toward a ridge axis in the upper troposphere are commonly observed in all the cases in general the area of wave activity is bounded by the jet axis to the west or northwest a surface front to the southeast an inflection axis between the trough and ridge axes to the southwest and the ridge axis to the northeast the conditions specified by lindzen and tung as being necessary to form a wave duct which include the existence of the lower tropospheric inversion seem to be met in many of these cases this suggests that a du

gravity wave characteristics in the lower atmosphere at south pole a 4 year 1993 1996 temperature and wind data set obtained from over 2000 high resolution balloon soundings at south pole is used to study gravity wave characteristics in the troposphere and lower stratosphere extensive analyses of energy density spectra and static stability are performed to present a comprehensive view of the gravity wave characteristics in the lower atmosphere at south pole our results show that the gravity waves are ubiquitous and often fairly strong at south pole even though the generation mechanisms are not clear gravity wave characteristics are in general similar to those obtained at other high latitude southern hemisphere stations potential energies vary between about 0 5 j kg and 5 j kg with season and altitude variations in kinetic energies are not well correlated with potential energy variations and range from 1 j kg to 11 j kg we observe significant seasonal variations of the slope and magnitude of the vertical wavenumber spectrum of temperature fluctuations especially in the stratosphere in general the gravity waves in the stratosphere are stronger weaker in austral spring fall wave activity in the troposphere has little seasonal dependence stability analysis shows that instabilities are more likely to occur in the troposphere than in the stratosphere the probability of wave instability is 13 7 in the troposphere and 5 4 in the stratosphere this is due to the less stable stratification in the troposphere where the buoyancy period averages 8 3 min compared to 4 9 min in the stratosphere dynamic shear instability is more likely to occur than convective instability 11 versus 2 6 in the troposphere and 4 7 versus 0 7 in the stratosphere due to the prevailing strong wind shear the instability probabilities vary seasonally with the austral winter exhibiting the highest probability of instabilities dynamic and convective instabilities combined in both the troposphere and stratosphere