A study of mesospheric gravity wave activities and their driving general circulation

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K21673
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Meteorology/Physical oceanography/Hydrology; Space and upper atmospheric physics
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (2016-2017); National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (2015)
• Principal Investigator: KINOSHITA Takenari 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, 大気海洋相互作用研究分野, 研究員 (20648638)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 重力波 / 中間圏 / 潮汐波

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Mesosphere has many unsolved phenomena compared with troposphere and stratosphere because observation regions and resolutions are scanty in mesosphere. The purpose of the study is to reveal three-dimensional structure of mesospheric gravity wave activities and their driving general circulation. At first, the long-term wind velocity data observed with the Poker Flat MF radar (65N, 147W) were analyzed to show local time dependence and seasonal climatologies of the 12 h and 24 h components in the mesospheric winds and their modulations of gravity wave kinetic energy. Next, mesospheric gravity waves have large amplitudes of wind velocity and temperature. We derived new three-dimensional wave activity flux more correctly applicable to mesospheric gravity wave in the mass-weighted isentropic time mean equations. These studies were published as two manuscripts.

Free Research Field

大気物理学