Seasonal variation and sources of atmospheric gravity waves in the Antarctic

Abstract

In the last recent ten years, our knowledge of gravity waves in the Antarctic has been significantly improved through numerous studies using balloon and satellite observations and high-resolution model simulations. In this report, we introduce results from two studies which were performed as a part of the NIPR project "Integrated analysis of the material circulation in the Antarctic atmosphere-cryosphere-ocean" (2004-2009), i.e., Yoshiki et al. (2004) and Sato and Yoshiki (2008). These two studies focused on the seasonal variation and sources of the gravity waves in the Antarctic, because horizontal wavelengths and phase velocities depend largely on the wave sources. The former study used original high-resolution data from operational radiosonde observations at Syowa Station. In the lowermost stratosphere, gravity waves do not exhibit characteristic seasonal variation; instead, the wave energy is intensified when lower latitude air intrudes into the area near Syowa Station in the upper troposphere. This intrusion is associated with blocking events or developed synoptic-scale waves. In the lower and middle stratosphere, the gravity wave energy is maximized in spring and particularly intensified when the axis of the polar night jet approaches Syowa Station. The latter study is based on intensive radiosonde observation campaigns that were performed in 2002 at Syowa Station as an activity of JARE-43. Gravity wave propagation was statistically examined using two dimensional (i.e., vertical wavenumber versus frequency) spectra in each season. It was shown that the gravity waves are radiated upward and downward from an unbalanced region of the polar night jet. This feature is consistent with the gravity-wave resolving GCM simulation.