Spectra of gravity wave density and wind perturbations observed during ALOHA-90 on the 25 March flight between Maui and Christmas Island

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91GL01150· OSTI ID:5566317

Hostetler, C A; Gardner, C S ^[1]; Vincent, R A; Lesicar, D ^[2]

---

1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (United States)
2. Univ. of Adelaide (Australia)

The airborne Na lidar and Christmas Island MF radar were used to measure the spectra of gravity wave density and wind perturbations during ALOHA-90 on the 25 March mission. Wave activity was especially strong near Christmas Island with measured wind variances between 1,000 and 1,400 (m/s){sup 2}. The vertical and meridional wave number spectra of horizontal wind perturbations exhibited power law shapes with slopes of {minus}3.17 and {minus}2.22, respectively. The temporal frequency spectrum appeared to be influenced by strong Doppler effects and had a shallow slope near {minus}1. The magnitudes of the spectra were 4.9 {times} 10{sup 5} (m/s){sup 2}/(cyc/m) at the vertical wave number 2{pi}/(4 km), 8.4 {times} 10{sup 6} (m/s){sup 2}/(cyc/m) at the meridional wave number 2{pi}/(200 km) and 7 {times} 10{sup 5} (m/s){sup 2}/(cyc/m) at the temporal frequency 2{pi}/(1 h).

• OSTI ID: 5566317
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States) Vol. 18:7; ISSN 0094-8276; ISSN GPRLA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DENSITY
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EQUATOR
EVALUATION
FLUCTUATIONS
GRAVITY WAVES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MESOSPHERE
OPTICAL RADAR
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
VARIATIONS
WIND