Interannual and seasonal variations of diurnal tide, gravity wave, ozone, and water vapor as observed by MLS during 1991-1994

Abstract

The diurnal tide in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) shows large seasonal and interannual variations. Despite recent modeling investigations, the underlying physical mechanisms for causing these variations remain unclear. This paper provides further observational constraints to tide-sensitive variables (H 2 O, O 3 , and gravity wave variances) used by the models, which are obtained simultaneously by upper atmosphere research satellite microwave limb sounder at altitudes below the MLT region. The strong quasi biannual oscillation and semiannual oscillation variations in these measurements reveal good correlations between the diurnal tide with other tide-sensitive variables, which should be taken into account for further modeling studies. © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of COSPAR.