Observing mesospheric gravity waves with an imaging riometer.

Moffat-Griffin, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9670-6715; Hibbins, R.E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6867-2255; Nielsen, K.; Jarvis, M.J.; Taylor, M.J.. 2008 Observing mesospheric gravity waves with an imaging riometer. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 70 (10). 1327-1335. 10.1016/j.jastp.2008.04.009

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2008.04.009

Abstract/Summary

Gravity waves play an important role in determining the structure and dynamics of the mesopause region. In this study the Imaging Riometer for Ionospheric Studies (IRIS) at Halley, Antarctica (76S, 27W) is shown to be capable of detecting short period mesospheric gravity waves using fluctuations of the ionospheric absorption of cosmic radio noise as a tracer. An analysis technique for quantifying these signatures is presented. The extraction of the wave period, horizontal phase speed and horizontal wavelength is demonstrated by applying wavelet analysis to synthetic imaging riometer absorption data, which contain known wave features. A mechanism to overcome the limitation on resolvable wavelengths is presented. The effect of noise on the analysis results is also discussed. The application of this technique to extract gravity wave parameters from imaging riometer data is demonstrated by comparison with those derived from a co-located airglow imager. Extension of this technique could, in future, enable a climatology of year round mesospheric gravity wave properties over Antarctica to be derived. It will also enable further gravity wave climatological studies to be performed using other imaging riometer datasets around the world.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1016/j.jastp.2008.04.009
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Global Science in the Antarctic Context (2005-2009) > Sun Earth Connections
ISSN:	1364-6826
Additional Keywords:	Imaging riometer, Gravity waves, Antarctica, Wavelets
NORA Subject Terms:	Physics Atmospheric Sciences
Date made live:	16 Mar 2009 13:36 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/6569

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1016/j.jastp.2008.04.009

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Global Science in the Antarctic Context (2005-2009) > Sun Earth Connections

ISSN:

1364-6826

Additional Keywords:

Imaging riometer, Gravity waves, Antarctica, Wavelets

NORA Subject Terms:

Physics
Atmospheric Sciences