Self‐Acceleration and Instability of Gravity Wave Packets: 3. Three‐Dimensional Packet Propagation, Secondary Gravity Waves, Momentum Transport, and Transient Mean Forcing in Tidal Winds

Dong et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030691) employed a new compressible model to examine gravity wave (GW) self‐acceleration dynamics, instabilities, secondary gravity wave (SGW) generation, and mean forcing for GW packets localized in two dimensions (2D). This paper extends the explora...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres 2020-02, Vol.125 (3), p.e2019JD030692-n/a
Main Authors: Fritts, David C., Dong, Wenjun, Lund, Thomas S., Wieland, Scott, Laughman, Brian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Acoustic propagation
Acoustic wave propagation
Acoustic waves
Acoustic‐gravity Waves
Atmospheric Composition and Structure
Atmospheric Processes
Climate and Dynamics
Compressibility
Dimensions
Dynamics
Geophysics
Gravitational waves
gravity wave instability dynamics
gravity wave momentum fluxes
gravity wave self‐acceleration
Gravity waves
Inertia
Mesosphere
Mesospheric Dynamics
Middle Atmosphere Dynamics
Middle Atmosphere: Constituent Transport and Chemistry
Middle Atmosphere: Energy Deposition
Momentum
Momentum transport
nonlinear gravity waves
Organic chemistry
Propagation
Refraction
secondary gravity waves
Thermosphere
Tidal winds
Wave generation
Wave packets
Wave propagation
Winds
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Summary:Dong et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030691) employed a new compressible model to examine gravity wave (GW) self‐acceleration dynamics, instabilities, secondary gravity wave (SGW) generation, and mean forcing for GW packets localized in two dimensions (2D). This paper extends the exploration of self‐acceleration dynamics to a GW packet localized in three dimensions (3D) propagating into tidal winds in the mesosphere and thermosphere. As in the 2D packet responses, 3D GW self‐acceleration dynamics are found to be significant and include 3D GW phase distortions, stalled GW vertical propagation, local instabilities, and SGW and acoustic wave generation. Additional 3D responses described here include refraction by tidal winds, localized 3D instabilities, asymmetric SGW propagation, reduced SGW and acoustic wave responses at higher altitudes relative to 2D responses, and forcing of transient, large‐scale, 3D mean responses that may have implications for chemical and microphysical processes operating on longer time scales. Key Points 3D gravity wave packets exhibit strong self‐acceleration, mean‐flow interactions, and instability dynamics 3D gravity wave packets yield strong local mean‐flow forcing and secondary gravity wave and acoustic wave generation Secondary gravity waves are modulated by tidal winds and have large scales and large influences extending into the thermosphere
ISSN:2169-897X
2169-8996
DOI:10.1029/2019JD030692