One of the most important dynamical processes in the tropical stratosphere is the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the zonal wind. Still, the QBO is not well represented in weather and climate models. To improve the representation of the QBO in the models, a better understanding of the driving of the QBO by atmospheric waves is required. In particular, the contribution of gravity waves is highly uncertain because of the small horizontal scales involved, and there is still no direct estimation based on global observations. We derive gravity wave momentum fluxes from temperature observations of the satellite instruments HIRDLS and SABER. Momentum flux spectra observed show that particularly gravity waves with intrinsic phase speeds <30 m/s (vertical wavelengths <10 km) interact with the QBO. Gravity wave drag is estimated from vertical gradients of observed momentum fluxes and compared to the missing drag in the tropical momentum budget of ERA-Interim. We find reasonably good agreement between their variations with time and in their approximate magnitudes. Absolute values of observed and ERA-Interim missing drag are about equal during QBO eastward wind shear. During westward wind shear, however, observations are about 2 times lower than ERA-Interim missing drag. This could hint at uncertainties in the advection terms in ERA-Interim. The strong intermittency of gravity waves we find in the tropics might play an important role for the formation of the QBO and may have important implications for the parameterization of gravity waves in global models.

[1] Amplitudes of quasi two-day waves (QTDWs) are derived from temperature observations of the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder and Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) satellite instruments. In particular, a global climatology of QTDW amplitudes is derived from 10 years of SABER data, covering the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. This climatology is compared with geostrophic winds and climatologies of gravity wave (GW) momentum flux and GW drag absolute values derived from the same data set. We find that QTDWs are forced shortly after the maximum of the mesospheric summertime zonal wind jet in regions of jet instability where the meridional gradient of quasi-geostrophic zonal mean potential vorticity is strongly negative. The jet instability regions are closely linked to enhanced GW drag that likely seeds those instabilities by decelerating the jet and causing the jet curvature responsible for the negative potential vorticity gradient. The vertical phase structure and the Eliassen-Palm flux of the QTDWs are derived from SABER data and investigated. It is shown that QTDWs propagate upward starting from the jet instability regions. They exert eastward drag in the jet core, and strong westward drag at higher altitudes. Strikingly, the QTDWs are forced in regions where the global distribution of GWs exhibits a characteristic longitudinal structure caused by the GW source patterns in the summer hemisphere. This longitudinal structure might play an important role in the forcing of QTDWs; however, no clear link has been found to the observed QTDW zonal wavenumbers.Citation: Ern, M., P. Preusse, S. Kalisch, M. Kaufmann, and M. Riese (2013), Role of gravity waves in the forcing of quasi two-day waves in the mesosphere: An observational study,

Abstract. Global model data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are analyzed for resolved gravity waves (GWs). Based on fitted 3-D wave vectors of individual waves and using the ECMWF global scale background fields, backward ray tracing from 25 km altitude is performed. Different sources such as orography, convection and winter storms are identified. It is found that due to oblique propagation waves spread widely from narrow source regions. Gravity waves which originate from regions of strong convection are frequently excited around the tropopause and have in the ECMWF model low phase and group velocities as well as very long horizontal wavelengths compared to other models and to measurements. While the total amount of momentum flux for convective GWs changes little over season, GWs generated by storms and mountain waves show large day-to-day variability, which has a strong influence also on total hemispheric fluxes; from one day to the next the total hemispheric flux may increase by a factor of 3. Implications of these results for using the ECMWF model in predicting, analyzing and interpreting global GW distributions as well as implications for seamless climate prediction are discussed.

Citation:Kalisch, S., P. Preusse, M. Ern, S. D. Eckermann, and M. Riese (2014), Differences in gravity wave drag between realistic oblique and assumed vertical propagation, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 119, 10,081-10,099, doi:10.1002 Abstract Gravity wave (GW) parametrizations for general circulation models (GCMs) restrict the propagation of GWs to the vertical direction. The influence of this vertical-only propagation assumption on the distribution of GW drag (GWD) has not yet been investigated. Thus, we present results of two global GW ray tracing simulations, one with full three-dimensional propagation (GWO) and a second one with vertical-only propagation (GWV) of GWs for January and July 2008. The Gravity wave Regional Or Global RAy Tracer (GROGRAT) was used to perform these simulations with a global homogeneous and isotropic launch distribution. Both simulations, GWO and GWV, are analyzed with respect to GWD in the zonal and meridional direction. The location of zonal GWD maxima changes. GWO shows in comparison to GWV a poleward shift of zonal GWD in both seasons with increased GWD at the summer stratopause. The meridional GWD is much stronger in the GWO case, spatially correlated with the zonal drag, and is generally poleward directed. These features in zonal and meridional drag are consistent with a general prevalence of poleward propagation of GWs. Additional simulations suggest that this is due to the Coriolis effect as well as wind filtering around the tropopause, allowing more GWs to propagate into the middle atmosphere. We infer how GWs of different horizontal wavelengths and phase speeds cause the main differences in GWD in the middle atmosphere. A simple test for GCMs is proposed to assess the effects of the altered meridional drag on the general circulation and the interaction with planetary waves.

Abstract. Convection as one dominant source of atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) has been the focus of investigation over recent years. However, its spatial and temporal forcing scales are not well known. In this work we address this open issue by a systematic verification of free parameters of the Yonsei convective GW source scheme based on observations from the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS). The instrument can only see a limited portion of the gravity wave spectrum due to visibility effects and observation geometry. To allow for a meaningful comparison of simulated GWs to observations, a comprehensive filter, which mimics the instrument limitations, is applied to the simulated waves. By this approach, only long horizontalscale convective GWs are addressed. Results show that spectrum, distribution of momentum flux, and zonal mean forcing of long horizontal-scale convective GWs can be successfully simulated by the superposition of three or four combinations of parameter sets reproducing the observed GW spectrum. These selected parameter sets are different for northern and southern summer. Although long horizontal-scale waves are only part of the full spectrum of convective GWs, the momentum flux of these waves is found to be significant and relevant for the driving of the QBO (quasi-biennial oscillation). The zonal momentum balance is considered in vertical cross sections of GW momentum flux (GWMF) and GW drag (GWD). Global maps of the horizontal distribution of GWMF are considered and consistency between simulated results and HIRDLS observations is found. The latitude dependence of the zonal phase speed spectrum of GWMF and its change with altitude is discussed.