All Physics Faculty Publications

Title

Evidence of gravity waves in the lower ionosphere

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Planetary and Space Science

Volume

19

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Date

1971

First Page

561

Abstract

Temperature and wind measurements extending up to 95 km have been made with rocket-grenade experiments at Natal, Brasil. On many occasions the temperature and wind speed above 60 km show uniformly spaced maxima and minima. In one series of these experiments four rockets were launched during a period of 18 hr. A comparison of these spaced observations gives an indication of the propagating character of the maxima and minima and also suggests a downward phase propagation. The perturbations in the temperature and the wind speed are similar in form but they appear to differ in phase. The wavelike appearance of the temperature profiles is believed to be caused by the adiabatic heating and cooling associated with propagating gravity waves. The wavelength obtained from these observations is 10-12 km which coincides with the expected vertical wavelength of 12 km for the dominant gravity wave in this altitude range. The observed temperature variations are also in agreement with the computed values for the prevailing conditions.

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