Atmospheric Gravity Waves: Processes and Parameterization

Ulrich Achatz; M. Joan Alexander; Erich Becker; Hye-Yeong Chun; Andreas Doernbrack; Laura A. Holt; Riwal Plougonven; Inna Polichtchouk; Kaoru Sato; Aditi Seshadri; Claudia Stephan; Annelize van Niekerk; Corwin Wright

doi:10.1175/JAS-D-23-0210.1

Atmospheric Gravity Waves: Processes and Parameterization

Ulrich Achatz, M. Joan Alexander, Erich Becker, Hye-Yeong Chun, Andreas Doernbrack, Laura A. Holt, Riwal Plougonven, Inna Polichtchouk, Kaoru Sato, Aditi Seshadri, Claudia Stephan, Annelize van Niekerk, Corwin Wright

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Abstract

Atmospheric predictability from sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales and climate variability are both influenced critically by gravity waves (GW). The quality of regional and global numerical models relies on thorough understanding of GW dynamics and its interplay with chemistry, precipitation, clouds and climate across many scales. For the foreseeable future, GWs and many other relevant processes will remain partly unresolved, and models will continue to rely on parameterizations. Recent model inter-comparisons and studies show that present-day GW parameterizations do not accurately represent GW processes. These shortcomings introduce uncertainties, among others, in predicting the effects of climate change on important modes of variability. However, the last decade has produced new data and advances in theoretical and numerical developments that promise to improve the situation. This review gives a survey of these developments, discusses the present status of GW parameterizations and formulates recommendations on how to proceed from there.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	237-262
Journal	Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
Volume	81
Issue number	2
Early online date	23 Jan 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-23-0210.1
Publication status	Published - 29 Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments. UA thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG) for partial support through the research unit "Multiscale Dynamics of Gravity Waves” (MS-GWaves, grants Grants AC 71/8-2, AC 71/9-2, and AC 71/12-2), CRC 181 “Energy transfers in Atmosphere an Ocean” (Project Number 274762653, Projects W01 “Gravity-wave parameterization for the atmosphere” and S02 “Improved Parameterizations and Numerics in Climate Models.”), and CRC 301 ”TPChange” (Project-ID 428312742, Projects B06 “Impact of small-scale dynamics on UTLS transport and mixing” and B07 “Impact of cirrus clouds on tropopause structure”). He also thanks the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for partial support through the program Role 32 of the Middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC II: QUBICC) and through grant 01LG1905B. MJA was supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Nos. 1642644 and 2004512. HYC was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the South Korea government. AD has been partly funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research under grants 01 LG 1907 (project WASCLIM) in the frame of the Role of the Middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC)-program. Further support by DFG under grants GW TP/DO 1020/9-1 and PACOG/RA 1400/6-1 in the frame of the DFG-research group MS-GWAVES is also acknowledged. LH was supported by the NASA Aura Science Team (NASA Grant No. 80NSSC20K0950). KS acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 22H00169. RP is supported by ANR project BOOST3R (ANR-17-CE01-0016-01) and by the Strateole-2 project
which is sponsored by CNES, CNRS/INSU and NSF. AS acknowledges support from the NSF through grant OAC-2004492. CCS was funded by the Minerva Fast Track Programme of the Max Planck Society. CJW acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF\R\221023) and by NERC grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/V01837X/1. UA, AS, and CCS are furthermore grateful for support by Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Futures VESRI “DataWave” project.

Data Availability Statement

Except for Fig. 7, no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. With regard to Fig. 7, the raw model output on the native grids amounts to few hundred terabytes, and thus it is not possible to make all data available for more than a few steps. However, postprocessed output used to make the figures will be retained and made available to those who request it. The analysis codes can be made available upon request.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1175/JAS-D-23-0210.1

Atmospheric Gravity Waves (accepted author manuscript)
© Copyright 20 November 2023 American Meteorological Society (AMS). The final publication is available at Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences via https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-23-0210.1
Accepted author manuscript, 8.3 MB

1 Finished
1 Active

MesoS2D: Mesospheric sub-seasonal to decadal predictability
Wright, C. (PI)
Natural Environment Research Council
3/04/22 → 2/04/26
Project: Research council
Planetary and Gravity Waves as Drivers of Sudden Stratospheric Warmings
Wright, C. (PI) & Mitchell, N. (CoI)
Natural Environment Research Council
1/07/19 → 31/03/23
Project: Research council

Cite this

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title = "Atmospheric Gravity Waves: Processes and Parameterization",

abstract = "Atmospheric predictability from sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales and climate variability are both influenced critically by gravity waves (GW). The quality of regional and global numerical models relies on thorough understanding of GW dynamics and its interplay with chemistry, precipitation, clouds and climate across many scales. For the foreseeable future, GWs and many other relevant processes will remain partly unresolved, and models will continue to rely on parameterizations. Recent model inter-comparisons and studies show that present-day GW parameterizations do not accurately represent GW processes. These shortcomings introduce uncertainties, among others, in predicting the effects of climate change on important modes of variability. However, the last decade has produced new data and advances in theoretical and numerical developments that promise to improve the situation. This review gives a survey of these developments, discusses the present status of GW parameterizations and formulates recommendations on how to proceed from there.",

author = "Ulrich Achatz and Alexander, {M. Joan} and Erich Becker and Hye-Yeong Chun and Andreas Doernbrack and Holt, {Laura A.} and Riwal Plougonven and Inna Polichtchouk and Kaoru Sato and Aditi Seshadri and Claudia Stephan and {van Niekerk}, Annelize and Corwin Wright",

note = "Acknowledgments. UA thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG) for partial support through the research unit {"}Multiscale Dynamics of Gravity Waves” (MS-GWaves, grants Grants AC 71/8-2, AC 71/9-2, and AC 71/12-2), CRC 181 “Energy transfers in Atmosphere an Ocean” (Project Number 274762653, Projects W01 “Gravity-wave parameterization for the atmosphere” and S02 “Improved Parameterizations and Numerics in Climate Models.”), and CRC 301 ”TPChange” (Project-ID 428312742, Projects B06 “Impact of small-scale dynamics on UTLS transport and mixing” and B07 “Impact of cirrus clouds on tropopause structure”). He also thanks the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for partial support through the program Role 32 of the Middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC II: QUBICC) and through grant 01LG1905B. MJA was supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Nos. 1642644 and 2004512. HYC was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the South Korea government. AD has been partly funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research under grants 01 LG 1907 (project WASCLIM) in the frame of the Role of the Middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC)-program. Further support by DFG under grants GW TP/DO 1020/9-1 and PACOG/RA 1400/6-1 in the frame of the DFG-research group MS-GWAVES is also acknowledged. LH was supported by the NASA Aura Science Team (NASA Grant No. 80NSSC20K0950). KS acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 22H00169. RP is supported by ANR project BOOST3R (ANR-17-CE01-0016-01) and by the Strateole-2 project which is sponsored by CNES, CNRS/INSU and NSF. AS acknowledges support from the NSF through grant OAC-2004492. CCS was funded by the Minerva Fast Track Programme of the Max Planck Society. CJW acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF\R\221023) and by NERC grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/V01837X/1. UA, AS, and CCS are furthermore grateful for support by Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Futures VESRI “DataWave” project.",

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AU - Achatz, Ulrich

AU - Alexander, M. Joan

AU - Becker, Erich

AU - Chun, Hye-Yeong

AU - Doernbrack, Andreas

AU - Holt, Laura A.

AU - Plougonven, Riwal

AU - Polichtchouk, Inna

AU - Sato, Kaoru

AU - Seshadri, Aditi

AU - Stephan, Claudia

AU - van Niekerk, Annelize

AU - Wright, Corwin

N1 - Acknowledgments. UA thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG) for partial support through the research unit "Multiscale Dynamics of Gravity Waves” (MS-GWaves, grants Grants AC 71/8-2, AC 71/9-2, and AC 71/12-2), CRC 181 “Energy transfers in Atmosphere an Ocean” (Project Number 274762653, Projects W01 “Gravity-wave parameterization for the atmosphere” and S02 “Improved Parameterizations and Numerics in Climate Models.”), and CRC 301 ”TPChange” (Project-ID 428312742, Projects B06 “Impact of small-scale dynamics on UTLS transport and mixing” and B07 “Impact of cirrus clouds on tropopause structure”). He also thanks the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for partial support through the program Role 32 of the Middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC II: QUBICC) and through grant 01LG1905B. MJA was supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Nos. 1642644 and 2004512. HYC was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the South Korea government. AD has been partly funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research under grants 01 LG 1907 (project WASCLIM) in the frame of the Role of the Middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC)-program. Further support by DFG under grants GW TP/DO 1020/9-1 and PACOG/RA 1400/6-1 in the frame of the DFG-research group MS-GWAVES is also acknowledged. LH was supported by the NASA Aura Science Team (NASA Grant No. 80NSSC20K0950). KS acknowledges support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 22H00169. RP is supported by ANR project BOOST3R (ANR-17-CE01-0016-01) and by the Strateole-2 project which is sponsored by CNES, CNRS/INSU and NSF. AS acknowledges support from the NSF through grant OAC-2004492. CCS was funded by the Minerva Fast Track Programme of the Max Planck Society. CJW acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF\R\221023) and by NERC grants NE/S00985X/1 and NE/V01837X/1. UA, AS, and CCS are furthermore grateful for support by Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Futures VESRI “DataWave” project.

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Atmospheric Gravity Waves: Processes and Parameterization

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

UN SDGs

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Projects

MesoS2D: Mesospheric sub-seasonal to decadal predictability

Planetary and Gravity Waves as Drivers of Sudden Stratospheric Warmings

Cite this