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Characteristics of mesospheric internal gravity waves observed by MU Radar
Author(s) -
Muraoka Y.,
Kawahira K.,
Sato T.,
Tsuda T.,
Fukao S.,
Kato S.
Publication year - 1987
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/gl014i011p01154
Subject(s) - gravity wave , internal wave , wavelength , gravitational wave , physics , dispersion (optics) , radar , mesosphere , dispersion relation , wave propagation , inertial wave , atmosphere (unit) , geology , geophysics , mechanical wave , atmospheric sciences , longitudinal wave , optics , meteorology , astrophysics , stratosphere , telecommunications , computer science
We present mesospheric wind data from MU radar at Shigaraki (34.9°N, 136.1°E), Japan, that exhibit a wave motion with a vertical wavelength of 6 km. An analysis of the horizontal and vertical components of the observed wind velocity shows that the wave motion is due to an internal inertia‐gravity wave. It behaves like a stationary wave, similar to lee waves. With the estimated wave parameters, we can derive the mean mesospheric temperature from the dispersion relation for the inertial modes. The temperature is shown to be quite consistent with the mean state of the atmosphere. It is further shown that a scattering echo layer observed simultaneously was closely connected with the vertical propagation of the gravity waves.