TY - JOUR
T1 - On shear-generated gravity waves that reach the mesosphere. Part II
T2 - Wave propagation
AU - Bühler, Oliver
AU - McIntyre, Michael E.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1999/11/1
Y1 - 1999/11/1
N2 - The propagation of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) shear-generated gravity waves through the summer stratosphere is investigated using ray tracing, taking into account back-reflection as well as wave dissipation due to precritical-layer breaking, radiative damping, and viscous diffusion. It is found that the transmission rate of upward-eastward waves to the mesosphere is surprisingly good, provided that the horizontal scale of the waves is large enough to prevent back-reflection. A rough upper bound on the net momentum flux into the mesosphere due to a large ensemble of mutually incoherent KH-generated clear-air turbulence events is then estimated, using reasonable-looking assumptions about the statistics of such events. It is found that on this basis the wave source cannot safely be neglected in the global angular momentum budget.
AB - The propagation of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) shear-generated gravity waves through the summer stratosphere is investigated using ray tracing, taking into account back-reflection as well as wave dissipation due to precritical-layer breaking, radiative damping, and viscous diffusion. It is found that the transmission rate of upward-eastward waves to the mesosphere is surprisingly good, provided that the horizontal scale of the waves is large enough to prevent back-reflection. A rough upper bound on the net momentum flux into the mesosphere due to a large ensemble of mutually incoherent KH-generated clear-air turbulence events is then estimated, using reasonable-looking assumptions about the statistics of such events. It is found that on this basis the wave source cannot safely be neglected in the global angular momentum budget.
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U2 - 10.1175/1520-0469(1999)056<3764:OSGGWT>2.0.CO;2
DO - 10.1175/1520-0469(1999)056<3764:OSGGWT>2.0.CO;2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0039183563
SN - 0022-4928
VL - 56
SP - 3764
EP - 3773
JO - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
JF - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
IS - 21
ER -