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Mesospheric bore formation fromlarge-scale gravity wave perturbations observed by collocated all-sky OH imager and sodium lidar

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

Volume

72

Issue

1

Publication Date

1-2009

First Page

7

Last Page

18

Abstract

On 9 October 2007, long-horizontal-wavelength gravity waves were observed for the first time to steepen and form mesospheric bores at the altitude of ∼87 km, by an all-sky OH imager located at Fort Collins (41°N, 105°W), Colorado. The collocated sodium lidar simultaneously observed the presence of a temperature inversion layer as the ducting region. One mesospheric bore uniquely later evolved into a large-amplitude soliton-like perturbation. When the gravity wave and the associated soliton-like perturbation passed through the lidar beams, the lidar detected strong vertical disturbance at 90 km, indicating convective instability. A large cold front system recorded several hours before in the troposphere was aligned to phase fronts of these large gravity waves. For all of the 7 mesospheric bores observed over a 5 year period, we found a similar alignment with a cold front 1000–1500 km away as the likely source of these large-scale gravity waves.

Comments

Published by Elsevier in Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Publisher PDF is available through link above. Publisher requires a subscription to access article.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2009.10.002

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