Radar observations of winds, waves and tides in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere over South Georgia island (54° S, 36° W) and comparison with WACCM simulations

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: N. P. Hindley, N. J. Mitchell, N. Cobbett, A. K. Smith, D. C. Fritts, D. Janches, C. J. Wright, T. Moffat-Griffin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; Southern Ocean; Argentina; South Georgia Island
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9435-2022; https://doaj.org/article/69abe8f33e6f4c658107250272050712

The mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) is a dynamic layer of the earth's atmosphere. This region marks the interface at which neutral atmosphere dynamics begin to influence the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. However, our understanding of this region and our ability to accurately simulate it in global circulation models (GCMs) is limited by a lack of observations, especially in remote locations. To this end, a meteor radar was deployed from 2016 to 2020 on the remote mountainous island of South Georgia (54 ∘ S, 36 ∘ W) in the Southern Ocean. In this study we use these new measurements to characterise the fundamental dynamics of the MLT above South Georgia including large-scale winds, solar tides, planetary waves (PWs), and mesoscale gravity waves (GWs). We first present an improved method for time–height localisation of radar wind measurements and characterise the large-scale MLT winds. We then determine the amplitudes and phases of the diurnal (24 h), semidiurnal (12 h), terdiurnal (8 h), and quardiurnal (6 h) solar tides at this latitude. We find very large amplitudes up to 30 m s −1 for the quasi 2 d PW in summer and, combining our measurements with the meteor SAAMER radar in Argentina, show that the dominant modes of the quasi 5, 10, and 16 d PWs are westward 1 and 2. We investigate and compare wind variance due to both large-scale “resolved” GWs and small-scale “sub-volume” GWs in the MLT and characterise their seasonal cycles. Last, we use our radar observations and satellite temperature observations from the Microwave Limb Sounder to test a climatological simulation of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). We find that WACCM exhibits a summertime mesopause near 80 km altitude that is around 10 K warmer and 10 km lower in altitude than observed. Above 95 km altitude, summertime meridional winds in WACCM reverse to poleward, but this not observed in radar observations in this altitude range. More significantly, we find that wintertime zonal winds between 85 to 105 km altitude are ...