How do gravity waves triggered by a typhoon propagate from the troposphere to the upper atmosphere?

Abstract

Abstract. Gravity waves (GWs) strongly affect atmospheric dynamics and photochemistry and the coupling between the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. In addition, GWs generated by strong disturbances in the troposphere (e.g. thunderstorms and typhoons) can affect the atmosphere of Earth from the troposphere to the thermosphere. However, the fundamental process of GW propagation from the troposphere to the thermosphere is poorly understood because it is challenging to constrain this process using observations. Moreover, GWs tend to dissipate rapidly in the thermosphere because the molecular diffusion increases exponentially with height. In this study, a double-layer airglow network was used to capture concentric GWs (CGWs) over China that were excited by Typhoon Chaba (2016). We used ERA5 reanalysis data and Multi-functional Transport Satellite-1R observations to quantitatively describe the propagation processes of typhoon-generated CGWs from the troposphere, through the stratosphere and mesosphere, to the thermosphere. We found that the CGWs in the mesopause region were generated directly by the typhoon in the troposphere. However, the backward-ray-tracing analysis suggested that CGWs in the thermosphere originated from the secondary waves generated by the dissipation of the CGW and/or nonlinear processes in the mesopause region.

Dynamics of Thermospheric Traveling Atmospheric Disturbance During a Geomagnetic Storm

“…Thermospheric TAD/AGW are mainly observed by in‐situ thermospheric satellites (Bruinsma & Forbes, 2009; Guo et al., 2007, 2014, 2015; Hocke & Schlegel, 1996), and other instruments like Fabry‐Perot interferometers (Nicolls et al., 2012; Vadas & Nicolls, 2012), and All‐Sky Imager (ASI) (Kubota et al., 2006; Li et al., 2022). Bruinsma and Forbes (2007) provided the evidence for the trans‐polar propagation of TAD using Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and Guo et al.…”

“…Thermospheric TAD/AGW are mainly observed by in-situ thermospheric satellites (Bruinsma & Forbes, 2009;Guo et al, 2007Guo et al, , 2014Guo et al, , 2015Hocke & Schlegel, 1996), and other instruments like Fabry-Perot interferometers (Nicolls et al, 2012;, and All-Sky Imager (ASI) (Kubota et al, 2006;Li et al, 2022). Bruinsma and Forbes (2007) provided the evidence for the trans-polar propagation of TAD using Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and Guo et al (2015) detected a LSTAD that propagated over a very long distance (almost traveled an entire circle around the earth) and it took ∼15.5 hr for this LSTAD to dissipate using simultaneous observation of CHAMP and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment.…”

Ionospheric and Atmospheric Response to Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nida of 29 July–02 August 2016

“…The signatures of gravity waves in ionosphere due to thunderstorm activity were reported by several workers (Kumar et al, 2017;Li et al, 2022). The periods of observed GWs from 9 to 20 min and to frequency 1-2 mHz were reported.…”

“…In recent years' atmospheric layers lying below the ionosphere have also been known to affect significantly the ionospheric variability (Vadas & Azeem, 2021). In addition, earthquakes, solar eclipse, thunderstorms/lightning, cyclone activity in the lower atmosphere also affect the ionospheric electron density distribution and plasma bubble occurrences in the ionosphere through gravity waves generation which have been reported in previous papers (Dube et al., 2020; Kumar et al., 2017; Li et al., 2022; Tang et al., 2019). During last decades several reports have been published to notice about atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) generated from low‐pressure cyclonic system.…”

“…As reflected from Table 2, the speed of GWs are noted to vary from 74 to 131 ms −1 with an average of 101 ms −1 . Using ERA5 reanalysis data along with air glow measurements, the propagation characteristics of GWs generated during typhoon were studied by Li et al (2022) they reported the average horizontal wavelength ∼96 km, and the average observed phase velocity ∼90 m s −1 .…”