How do gravity waves triggered by a typhoon propagate from the troposphere to the upper atmosphere?

Abstract

Gravity waves (GWs) strongly affect atmospheric dynamics and photochemistry and the coupling between the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. In addition, GWs generated by strong disturbances in the troposphere (e.g. thunderstorms and typhoons) can affect the atmosphere of Earth from the troposphere to the thermosphere. However, the fundamental process of GW propagation from the troposphere to the thermosphere is poorly understood because it is challenging to constrain this process using observations. Moreover, GWs tend to dissipate rapidly in the thermosphere because the molecular diffusion increases exponentially with height. In this study, a double-layer airglow network was used to capture concentric GWs (CGWs) over China that were excited by Typhoon Chaba (2016). We used ERA5 reanalysis data and Multi-functional Transport Satellite-1R observations to quantitatively describe the propagation processes of typhoon-generated CGWs from the troposphere, through the stratosphere and mesosphere, to the thermosphere. We found that the CGWs in the mesopause region were generated directly by the typhoon in the troposphere. However, the backward-ray-tracing analysis suggested that CGWs in the thermosphere originated from the secondary waves generated by the dissipation of the CGW and/or nonlinear processes in the mesopause region.