Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS
Volume 121, Issue 9, Pages 9204-9221Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2016JA022823
Keywords
airglow; gravity wave; sources
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation of China [41404121, 41331069]
- Specialized Research Fund for State Key Laboratories
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The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as Third Pole of the Earth, has important influences on global climates and local weather. An important objective in present study is to investigate how orographic features of the TP affect the geographical distributions of gravity wave (GW) sources. Three-year OH airglow images (November 2011 to October 2014) from Qujing (25.6 degrees N, 103.7 degrees E) were used to study the characteristics of GWs over the southeastern TP region. Along with the almost concurrent and collocated meteor radar wind measurements and temperature data from SABER/TIMED satellite, the propagation conditions of three types of GWs (freely propagating, ducted, or evanescent) were estimated. Most of GWs exhibited ducted or evanescent characteristics. Almost all GWs propagate southeastward in winter. The GW propagation directions in winter are significantly different from other airglow imager observations at northern middle latitudes. Wind data and convective precipitation fields from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis data are used to study the sources of GWs on the edge of the TP. Using backward ray-tracing analysis, we find that most of the mesospheric freely propagating GWs are located in or near the large wind shear intensity region (similar to 10km-similar to 17km) on the southeastern edge of the TP in spring and winter. The averaged value of momentum flux is 11.65.2m(2)/s(2) in winter and 7.53.1m(2)/s(2) in summer. This work will provide valuable information for the GW parameterization schemes in general circulation models in TP region.
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