A Comparison of Stratospheric Gravity Waves in a High-Resolution General Circulation Model With 3-D Satellite Observations

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Abstract

Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) play a key role in determining the thermodynamical structure of the Earth's middle atmosphere. Despite the small spatial and temporal scales of these waves, a few high-top general circulation models (GCMs) that can resolve them explicitly have recently become available. This study compares global GW characteristics simulated in one such GCM, the Japanese Atmospheric GCM for Upper-Atmosphere Research (JAGUAR), with those derived from three-dimensional (3-D) temperatures observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The target period is from 15 December 2018 to 8 January 2019, including the onset of a major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW). The 3-D Stockwell transform method is used for GW spectral analysis. The amplitudes and momentum fluxes of GWs in JAGUAR are generally in good quantitative agreement with those in the AIRS observations in both magnitude and distribution. As the SSW event progressed, the GW amplitudes and eastward momentum flux increased at low latitudes in the summer hemisphere in both the model and observation datasets. Case studies demonstrate that the model is able to reproduce comparable wave events to those in the AIRS observations with some differences, especially noticeable at low latitudes in the summer hemisphere. Through a comparison between the model results with and without the AIRS observational filter applied, it is suggested that the amplitudes of GWs near the entrance or exit of an eastward jet streak are underestimated in AIRS observations.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2023JD038795
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Volume128
Issue number13
Early online date14 Jun 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Shingo Watanabe for valuable discussion and for providing the computational codes for the JAGUAR model, and two anonymous reviewers for their fruitful comments on the original manuscript. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP21J20798 supporting H. Okui and JP22H00169 supporting H. Okui and K. Sato, by Royal Society University Research Fellowship URF\R\221023 and Research Grant RGF\R1\180010 supporting C. J. Wright and E. J. Lear, and by NERC Grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/W003201/1 supporting C. J. Wright and N. Hindley. The JAGUAR simulations in this study were performed using the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine‐Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Shingo Watanabe for valuable discussion and for providing the computational codes for the JAGUAR model, and two anonymous reviewers for their fruitful comments on the original manuscript. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP21J20798 supporting H. Okui and JP22H00169 supporting H. Okui and K. Sato, by Royal Society University Research Fellowship URF\R\221023 and Research Grant RGF\R1\180010 supporting C. J. Wright and E. J. Lear, and by NERC Grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/W003201/1 supporting C. J. Wright and N. Hindley. The JAGUAR simulations in this study were performed using the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Authors.

Funding

The authors are grateful to Shingo Watanabe for valuable discussion and for providing the computational codes for the JAGUAR model, and two anonymous reviewers for their fruitful comments on the original manuscript. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP21J20798 supporting H. Okui and JP22H00169 supporting H. Okui and K. Sato, by Royal Society University Research Fellowship URF\R\221023 and Research Grant RGF\R1\180010 supporting C. J. Wright and E. J. Lear, and by NERC Grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/W003201/1 supporting C. J. Wright and N. Hindley. The JAGUAR simulations in this study were performed using the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine‐Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). The authors are grateful to Shingo Watanabe for valuable discussion and for providing the computational codes for the JAGUAR model, and two anonymous reviewers for their fruitful comments on the original manuscript. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant JP21J20798 supporting H. Okui and JP22H00169 supporting H. Okui and K. Sato, by Royal Society University Research Fellowship URF\R\221023 and Research Grant RGF\R1\180010 supporting C. J. Wright and E. J. Lear, and by NERC Grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/W003201/1 supporting C. J. Wright and N. Hindley. The JAGUAR simulations in this study were performed using the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

Keywords

  • general circulation model
  • gravity waves
  • middle atmosphere
  • momentum flux
  • satellite observations
  • stratosphere

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geophysics
  • Atmospheric Science
  • Space and Planetary Science
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

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