Gravity wave spectra parameters in 2003 retrieved from stellar scintillation measurements by GOMOS

Abstract

Using satellite measurements of stellar scintillation allows quantifying gravity waves (GW) in the stratosphere and their breaking into turbulence. GW and turbulence spectra parameters are retrieved by fitting modeled scintillation spectra to measured spectra. We use a twocomponent spectral model of air density irregularities: the first component corresponds to the gravity wave spectrum, while the second one describes patches of locally isotropic turbulence. In this paper, we show global distributions and seasonal variations of the GW spectra parameters (structure characteristic, inner and outer scales) retrieved from GOMOS/Envisat scintillation measurements in 2003, for altitudes 30-50 km, and discuss peculiarities of these distributions. The use of outer scale estimations has enabled us to obtain self-consistent estimates of GW potential energy Ep per unit mass. GW parameters retrieved from scintillations are in good agreement with those from other measurements at overlapping altitudes and locations. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.