An intense gravity wave near the mesopause region observed by a Fabry-Perot interferometer and an airglow imager

Abstract

We report an intense gravity wave event observed at Shigaraki, Japan, at 1500-2000 UT (0000-0500 LT) on 22 December 2001 using a Fabry-Perot interferometer, which measures the Doppler shift of nocturnal airglow emission at a wavelength of 557.7 nm (emission altitude: 90-100 km). The wave had a period of 1.5 hours and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 68 m/s in the horizontal wind velocity. The hodograph of the east-west and north-south wind oscillations showed a polarization direction of the wave of ENE-WSW. An all-sky airglow imager at Shigaraki also recorded a similar southwestward moving wave with a period of ∼1.5 hours and a velocity of 146 m/s in the 557.7-nm airglow images. The horizontal wavelength was estimated to be 790 km from the images. These facts indicate that the wave was generated in the northeast of Japan, where a well-developed low-pressure cell (968 hPa) and a distortion of the jet stream were observed in the troposphere. However, the large horizontal wavelength, the fast phase velocity, and the possible source location apart from the exit of the jet streak are different from those predicted from previous numerical simulations. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.