Rayleigh LIDAR, GPS radio occultation and SABER observations of gravity wave activity above the southern tip of South America (Rio Gallegos, Argentina, 51.6°S, 69.3°W)

SALVADOR, J.; HIERRO, R.; LLAMEDO, P.; ALEXANDER, P.; DE LA TORRE, A.; QUIROGA, J.; SCHMIDT, T.

Graz

Workshop; OPAC-IROWG 2016; 2016

Thegravity wave (GW) activity in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere(USLM) is investigated from temperature (T) Rayleigh lidar data retrieved atRio Gallegos, Argentina (51.6°S, 69.3°W) between August 2005 and November 2015.A total of 302 Rayleigh lidar observations providing more than 1500h of data isused for the study. The GW mean potentialenergy per unit mass (Ep) variability in the USLM for waves with periods greaterthan 30 min and vertical wavelengths between 1 km and 12 km is analyzed. The Ep seasonal variability shows two systematicmaxima, during winter and early spring respectively. The origin of thesefeatures is analyzed. Despite the orography is the main source of waves, otherpossible relevant sources associated to the polar jet variability may generatelarge amplitude GWs in the USLM. Ep calculated considering different altitude intervalsof integration from lidar measurements is compared with GPS radio occultation(RO) and Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER)data. In doing so, a set of collocations of the line of sight of satellite dataat the lidar position, considering a window of 4x4 deg and +/-12 h is considered.Some case studies from these data sets are discussed in a related poster byLlamedo et al.