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Breaking of small‐scale gravity wave and transition to turbulence observed in OH airglow
Author(s) -
Yamada Y.,
Fukunishi H.,
Nakamura T.,
Tsuda T.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl011945
Subject(s) - mesopause , airglow , gravity wave , breaking wave , turbulence , physics , wavelength , instability , gravitational wave , wave turbulence , atmospheric sciences , scale (ratio) , mesosphere , geology , meteorology , optics , stratosphere , astronomy , wave propagation , mechanics , quantum mechanics
We report on observations of small‐scale gravity wave breaking into turbulence around the mesopause height using an OH airglow CCD camera and a meteor radar performed on December 23, 1995 in Japan. The small‐scale gravity wave propagated against the background wind with a horizontal wavelength of ∼27 km, an apparent horizontal phase velocity of ∼7 ms −1 , and an intrinsic period of ∼5.6 minutes. Wave breaking event began with an appearance of smaller‐scale structures, which were aligned parallel to the phase fronts of the breaking wave and advanced into more random, turbulence‐like features. The instability structures were present in the OH images for about 40 minutes.