Small-scale Disturbances in the Lower Stratosphere Revealed by
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Small-scale Disturbances in the Lower Stratosphere Revealed by
October 1989 Y. Kitamura Small-scale Disturbances by Daily By Yasuo and I. in the Rawin Lower Sonde Kitamura Hirota and 817 Stratosphere Revealed Observations Isamu Hirota Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan (Manuscript received27 March 1989, in revisedform 22 July 1989) Abstract Small-scale disturbances in the lower stratosphere are investigated with the aid of operational rawinsonde observations over Japan. The disturbances appear not only in wind but also in temperature fields. The disturbances show a clear seasonal variation: the intensity is large in winter and spring, in a similar manner to that of the mean zonal wind. They also have latitudinal and altitudinal dependency with the peak of intensity at 15km to 20km height around 40*N. The dominant vertical scale of the disturbances is 2 to 5km and they extend north and south with a scale of a few hundred kilometers. By applying a vertical band-pass filter, it is found that they show a wave-like form with a characteristic phase relation such that the lag of T' to u' and lag of u' to *' are both in between -180* and -90*. Supposing that they are inertia-gravity waves, the phase relation suggests that the wavenumber vector points to the direction of the north-west and downward and hence the waves transport the energy north-westward and upward relative to the background wind. This inclination of the propagation direction can be interpreted as a consequence of the selectivity due to the critical layers as well as the wave generation. From all of these results, we deduce that the generation and the characteristic structure of the disturbances are closely related to the subtropical jet at the tropopause level. 1. Introduction 2. Data Description In recent years, internal gravity waves have attracted a special interest due to their important role such as in momentum transport and the interaction with the mean flow (Lindzen 1981). To date, gravity waves in the middle atmosphere have been observed by various methods. However, most of them are case studies with limited data except the statistical studies of Hirota (1984) and Hirota and Niki (1985) for the stratosphere and lower mesosphere. General aspects of gravity waves are not yet known in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, where many of them are thought to be generated. In this paper we show the temporal and spatial distribution and the structure of small-scale disturbances with the aid of rawin-sonde observations over Japan. The advantage of this study is that we can see the latitudinal variation of the disturbances in relation to the location of the subtropical jet which varies with season. An attempt is also made to find a source of them on the basis of the simple theoretical consideration of the inertia-gravity wave. The daily operational rawinsonde observation from the surface up to about 25km height is made at meteorologicalobservatories in Japan at 0 and 12 Greenwich Mean Time (9 and 21 Local Time). In this paper we use a data set at 18 stations (Fig. 1) for the year of 1986. After mixing standard pressure levels and significant levels, whose interval becomes about 1km, we interpolate the temperature and wind data linearly at the same interval of 0.5km. Wind data are decomposed into their zonal component and meridional component. Height is calculated by using a hydrostatic approximation with pressure and temperature data. As for the wind observation, it is known that the interference between a direct radio waveand a reflective one gives rise to angular errors in radio-tracking at a small elevation level (Okabe,1985). In our data, *1989, Meteorological Society of Japan however, temperature is also found to fluctuate in a similar way, as will be mentioned in the following sections, so that these fluctuations are believed to be due to not errors but to the appearance of atmospheric phenomena. 818 Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Vol. 67, No. 5 Fig. 1. Position (asterisk) and number of rawin sonde stations. 3. Results 3.1 Vertical profiles and index of disturbances Figure 2 shows vertical profiles of temperature, tonal wind and meridional wind at 12 hour intervals at Akita (40*N) in January 1986. In general, temperature decreases monotonically from the ground to the tropopause level (about 9km) and apparently fluctuates with height above that level. Moreover,it seems that these fluctuations continue for a few days (for example, 14*16th and 25*27th in January) and that fluctuations with large amplitude appear at nearly the same height region. Similar fluctuations are also found in zonal wind mainly above the peak of the subtropical jet (about 11km), but are somewhat smoother. Fluctuations in meridional wind are weakerthan those in zonal wind. These fluctuations can be seen in other months and at other stations near Akita. In order to estimate the vertical scale, we use the lag correlation method. since temperature and zonal wind have a large vertical trend, we removethe trend above 10km by using the least-square method under the assumption that the trend can be approximated by a curve of second order. By sliding the each profile vertically we make an auto-correlation function and roughly estimate the vertical scale of each disturbance as twice the distance to the first minimum. Figure 3 shows the frequency distribution of vertical scales above 10km height at Akita for December through April. As for temperature and tonal wind, the vertical scale shows a rather wide distribution covering 2 to 10km centered at 4*5km. As for meridional wind, a vertical scale of 5*6km is dominant. These dominant vertical scales are somewhat larger than those of other studies in the lower stratosphere (e.g., Thompson, 1978; Fritts et al., 1988). This may be partly because of a remainder of larger-scale effectssuch as the sub-tropical jet, while a vertical scale of 2*3km is dominant above 15km. Therefore we can say that the most dominant vertical scales of disturbances in the lower stratosphere are 2*5km. In order to see the relative intensity of disturbances we define an index of disturbances. In view of the scale of the disturbances, weapply a high-pass filter to each profile with respect to height to retain only those disturbances shorter than 6km. Then we define the index of temperature disturbances as, October 1989 Y. Kitamura and I. Hirota Fig. 2. Vertical profiles of (a) temperature, (b) tonal wind and (c) meridional wind at Akita in January in 1986. Observation time is 0 and 12GMT, and each profile is displaced in order not to overlap. The horizontal axis is graduated every 10K in (a) and every 20m/s in (b) and (c). 819 820 Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Vol. 67, No. 5 the peak of the sub-tropical jet are too sharp to be filtered out. where T' denotes the high-pass filtered temperature. Roughly speaking, this is a measure of the wave amplitude with a factor of 2/* in the case of a sinusoidal wave. Likewise, we define the index of disturbances for zonal and meridional winds. However, it must be noted that, even if we use the high-pass filter, we cannot completely remove the contribution of the large-scale component, because the tropopause and Fig. 3. Histogram of the vertical scale of the 3.2 Day-to-day variation As mentioned above, the disturbances do not always exist in the lower stratosphere but appear intermittently. Fig. 4 shows the time series of the index of temperature disturbances at z=17.5km in January and February at Misawa (41*N), Akita (40*N), Sendai (38*N) and Tateno (36*N). They change irregularly at Misawa, Akita and Sendai, but obviously high values appear about 15th, 25th in January and 3rd, 9th in February at the three stations, the maxima of which are larger than 4K. On the other hand, we can see little change at Tateno. The index of zonal wind at the same height is shown in Fig. 5, which also indicates a similar result. It is noted that zonal wind disturbances at Misawa are rather weak compared with the other two stations. In order to examine the relation between these time series of data, we calculate the correlation coefficientfor each month. As for the correlation coefficient between temperature and tonal wind at the same station, it is large in winter, the maximum 0.64 is obtained in February and the minimumis less than 0.2 in July at Akita, while the value at Tateno is small, especially in winter. As regards the correlation coefficientof the temperature index between at Akita and at another station, it is found that the correlation with stations near Akita is very large in all seasons, the maximum of which exceeds 0.6. This result reconfirmsthat these fluctuations are not errors in observations but actual atmospheric phenomena. disturbances above 10km for December through April. October 1989 Fig. Y. Kitamura 4. Time vertical series 590-Sendai, Fig. 5. Time vertical of temperature axis is K and the numbers and I. Hirota disturbances at along vertical the 17.5km 821 height in January axis represent stations and February. as 580-Misawa, Unit of 528-Akita, 646-Tateno. series axis of zonal wind disturbances at 17.5km height in January and February. Unit of the is m/sec. 3.3 Distribution of the disturbances Hirota (1984) examined the seasonal and latitudinal dependency of small-scale disturbances in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere with the aid of meteorological rocket observations. In this subsection we show the seasonal and latitudinal variation of the small-scale disturbances in the lower stratosphere. Figure 6 shows the time-height cross section of the monthly-mean index of temperature disturbances at Akita. It is easily found that high values appear in winter and April and low values in summer. The onal wind index (Fig. 7) also shows high values z in winter and April, but the height of the maximum is somewhat lower than that of temperature. The predominance of the annual cycle with maximum in winter is consistent with the result of rocket data analysis by Hirota (1984). We also examine the latitudinal distribution of the disturbances. For this purpose, we choose 8 sta- 822 Journal Fig. 6. Time-height monthly-mean turbances Fig. at Akita 8. Meridional mean temperature uary with meridian cross index cross is represented The below of the Society Fig. of monthly- data position near 9. Meridional zonal 140*E uary. In this axis. used. section of tonal of wind the dis- in m/sec. mean not cross index in Janof stations horizontal Fig. Vol. 67, No. 7. Time-height turbances section the of Japan monthly-mean dis- in K. disturbances 8 stations line. section of temperature of the Meteorological cross wind figure, section of monthly- disturbances data in Jan- at Misawa are 5 October 1989 Fig. Y. Kitamura 10. Meridional cross section and I. Hirota of monthly-mean tions located along 140*E:they are Wakkanai (W), Sapporo (Sa), Misawa(M), Akita (A), Sendai (Se), Tateno (T), Hachijoujima (H) and Chichijima (C). Figures 8 and 9 show the meridional cross section of monthly-mean temperature and zonal wind disturbances in January. It is found that the temperature index and the tonal wind index both have high values from 15km to 20km over Akita. On the other hand Figs. 10 and 11 shows the meridional cross section of the monthly-mean temperature and zonal wind. In January two tropopauses appear: one is at about 15km height in lower latitudes and the other is at about 10km in higher latitudes. In August a single tropopause appears at about 15km. As regards the mean tonal wind, the core of the jet stream is located at 10km height over Hachijoujima in January and shifts to the north of Wakkanai in August. The magnitude is obviously larger in winter than in summer. Note that high values of zonal wind index above Hachijoujima (Fig. 9) are considered to be due to the peak of the sub-tropical jet, as was mentioned earlier. Such a high value is not found for the temperature index around the jet core (see Fig. 8). From Figs. 8*11 we can say that the peak of the disturbances is located at the north edge and above the jet stream, where the two tropopause overlap in winter. Moreover, the ridge of the disturbances seems to stretch to the core of the jet. Relation with basic fields 3.4 Figure 12 shows the time-height cross section of temperature 823 in January and August in K. monthly-mean tonal wind at Akita. The maximum of zonal wind in April and November can be compared well with the seasonal variation of the disturbances (Figs. 6 and 7). Figure 13 shows the correlation coefficient between the temperature disturbances at 17.5km (see Fig. 4) and the zonal wind at each height for each month. Large values more than 0.6 are seen at 14 km in February and in the troposphere in November. Note that positive values appear at almost all heights, suggesting that many of the disturbances appear when the tonal wind is large. The relative position of the disturbances to the onal wind configuration will also provide us with z interesting information. As mentioned in Section 3.3, the disturbances are situated to the north of and above the jet core. This fact and the tilting of the ridge suggest that the generation of these disturbances is strongly connected with the intensity of the sub-tropical jet. 3.5 Structure of disturbances In the subsection we examine the vertical structure of the disturbances and make a comparison with that of inertia-gravity waves. Figure 14 shows the meridional cross section of temperature for four days in winter time when the disturbances are dominant. It is found that the fluctuations extend over 2 or more stations. In other words, the horizontal scale of these disturbances is a few hundred kilometers. In order to extract the disturbances more clearly, a vertical band-pass filter 824 Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Vol. 67, No. 5 Fig. 11. Meridional cross section of monthly-mean zonal wind in January and August in m/sec . Fig. 12. Time-height cross section of Monthly-mean tonal wind in m/sec. Fig. 13. Correlation month coefficient of temperature 17.5km and height at Akita. the height basic of zonal for each disturbances at tonal wind at Vertical axis presents wind. each October 1989 Y. Kitamura Fig. 14. Some cases of meridional cross from 2 to 6km is applied (see Fig. 15) (hereafter referred to as band-pass filtered temperature, tonal wind and meridional wind T', u' and *', respectively). In this figure each profile seems to have a wave-like form, especially in the stratosphere. For example at OGMT of 26th January, the maximum value of u' appears at about 16km, the maximum and I. Hirota section 825 of temperature in wintertime in K . of T' at about 17km, and the maximum of *' at about 18.5km. A phase relation similar to this case can be seen in other profiles. Although the identification of the disturbances is not yet definite, we will try to explain the phase relation gravity waves. on the basis of the theory of inertiaFor linearized inertia-gravity waves 826 Journal Fig. 15. Some of the Meteorological cases of band-pass a wavenumber vector is obtained from phase lags of T', u' and *', as described in detail in the Appendix. By making an auto-correlation function and a cross-correlation function of T', u' and *', we determine a wavelength and a phase lag as follows, wavelength: twice the length to the first minimum of the auto-correlation function phase lag : the value of the length to the first minimum of the cross-correlation function divided by the wave length of u' From these definition and Eqs. (8-a, b) and (9) in Appendix the phase lag of T' to u' and of u' to *' and a wavenumber vector are obtained for 12 typical cases with large amplitudes. They are shown in Table 1 and Fig. 16. Most of them can be ex- Society filtered of Japan profiles Vol. 67, No. 5 at Akita. plained by the phase relation of gravity waves (in other word, they satisfy the condition of Eq. (12) in the Appendix), and there are many cases whose wavenumbervector is directed north-westward and downward. Then we make a statistical analysis for five months from December to April. Figure 17 is a scatter diagram in which the abscissa is the phase lag of T' to u' and the ordinate is the phase lag of u' to *'. From this figure we can see the relation of the two phase lags. It is found that marks crowd at the left and lower part of the diagram. It means that the phase from -180* to -90* is dominant on both axes. We compare it with Fig. 18 which shows the theoretical relation of phase lag and the direction of a wavenumbervector. Form these two figures we can interpret many of the disturbances as grav- October 1989 Y. Kitamura and I. Hirota Fig. 827 17. scissa Scatter diagram is lag of T' of phase to u' and lag. ordinate Abis lag of u' to *'. Fig. 16. The ponents direction of wavenumber Numbers the of the at an arrow number in Table horizontal vectors point 1. com- in Table 1. correspond 7 cases to among 12 are presented. ity waves with the wavenumber in the direction of north-west and downward, except for some others which are not located in a numbered area in Fig. 18 and do not relate to gravity waves. 4. Concluding remarks Fig. 18. Direction obtained lags: wavenumber 1-northeastward, 3-southwestward, same of theoretically coordinates from vectors two phase 2-northwestward, 4-southeastward. as in Fig. The 17 are used. We have presented the nature of the small-scale disturbances in the lower stratosphere by using rawin-sonde data over Japan. As for the difference among stations, the latitudinal dependency is remarkable; the disturbances are active around Akita (40*N) at 15*20km height. The region is situated above the peak of the sub-tropical jet and to the north of it in winter. It is also near a break of the sub-tropical tropopause at 15km and the extratropical tropopause at 10km. The disturbances have a seasonal dependency as well, with maxima appearing in winter and spring. This manner of appearance is similar to the seasonal variation of zonal wind in the same latitude. From the case studies and the statistical analysis, it has been proved that they have the characteristic structure as follows: the typical vertical wavelength is 2*5km, horizontal extension is several hundred kilometers, and they have predominant phase relations as shown in Fig. 17. Supposing that they are inertia gravity waves, we can interpret those relations as follows: the wavenumber vector directs north-westward and downward, and the waves transport the energy in the direction of north-west and upward. Moreover, we can put a consistent interpretation upon the inclination of the propagating direction. 828 Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Vol. 67, No. 5 Fig. 19. Schematic illustration of the filtering effect due to the critical layer. The horizontal axis is the basic tonal wind u(z) and the zonal phase speed cp. The sign of the tonal wavenumber k is indicated at the top. Points S and O represent the wave-generated level and the wave-observed level. The waves in Region 1 and 2 are able to reach Point O. From Eq. (10) of the Appendix, the tonal phase speed cp=*/* must satisfy the following condition: for or for Since u(z) has a peculiar vertical profile, some of the waves generated below the peak of zonal wind come across the critical layer and are filtered out until they reach the stratosphere. Thus only the waves with a phase speed in the Region1 and Region 2 of Fig. 19 can propagate into the stratosphere. Besides the phase speeds shown in the Region2 are so large that there is little possibility of generation, and even if they are generated, those waves with large horizontal phase speed could not be observed by balloons which ascend slowly. Therefore in the lower stratosphere, we can expect to observe only the waves with a phase speed in the Region 1. Taking all of these results into account, we can infer that a main source of the disturbances is located below the westerly jet. Long-period data of balloon observations have been accumulated all over the world. Investigation of the global distribution of the disturbances using those data will help us to understand the nature of the disturbances. The study of gravity waves and other small-scale disturbances need to be made continuously to confirm the results in this paper. Appendix Characteristics of inertia-gravity waves Gravity waves with somewhat larger space and time scales (horizontal wavelengths*1000km and periods of several hours) are influenced by the rotation of the earth. We assume that the basic meridional wind and the vertical wind are zero, the basic zonal wind u is constant and the basic temperature T is dependent on height only. Moreover,on the assumption of a frictionless and adiabatic atmosphere, employing Cartesian coordinates (x, y) in the horizontal and log-pressure coordinate z in the vertical, the linearized momentum equations, continuity equation and thermodynamic equation take the following form: October 1989 Y. Kitamura and I. Hirota 829 Table 1. Estimated values of 12 cases. WL(T'), WL(u'), LP(T') and LP(u') present wavelength of T', wavelengthof u', phase lag of T' to u' and phase lag of u' to *', repectively. Angles obtained are in the region of from -180* to 180*. where and u'-*': u, v, w, : three components of wind velocity, T : temperature, for we have where Similarly, for we have where K=(k, l, m) is a wavenumber vector, * is the observed frequency and the letters with a hat are complex. Substituting Eq. (4) into Eqs. (3a*e) and making the Boussinesqapproximation, the dispersion relation is given by where *=*-ku is the intrinsic frequency where and N2* R/ H(Tz+k/HT) istheBrunt-Vaisala frequency squared. Since the sign of k and * can be selected, we assume that *>0. From the relation between two variables with a hat, we can get the phase relation of T'-u' In these equations, * difference of T'-u and and * represent u'-*', respectively. the phase 830 Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Acknowledgements Since the sign of k and l corresponds to the sign of sin * and cos *, respectively, the unit vector k1= (k1, l1), which is in the direction of the horizontal projection of the wavenumber vector, is determined as follows: And since Hemisphere, sin * must be positive in the Northern as to the vertical component m1{>0 ifwhere 0*<sign(m)*<180* sign (m)* is equivalent <0 if -180*<sign(m)*<0*, to the phase lag of(9) u' to *' with height. In general the followingrelation holds for inertiagravity waves * N. (10) From this relation and Egs.(6-e, *) and (7-e, *), it followsthat This is transformed into the followingform: tan * tan*1. (12) This inequality is one of the important properties of inertia-gravity waves. Vol. 67, No. 5 This is a part of the Master Thesis of one of the authors (Y.K.). We wish to thank Professors S. Yoden and T. Tsuda for their helpful discussions. Thanks are also due to Ms. K. Sato for her continual advice and comments. We make grateful acknowledgement to Mr. S. Yamada of Japan Meteorological Agency for compiling the rawin-sonde data. The computations were performed on the FACOM M780computer at the Data Processing Center of Kyoto University. References Andrews, D.G., J.R. Holton and C.B. Leovy,1987: "MiddleAtmosphereDynamics." AcademicPress, INC. Fritts, D.C., T. Tsuda, S. Sato, S. Fukaoand S. Kato, 1988:Observationalevidenceof a saturatedgravity wavespectrumin the troposphereand lowerstratosphere. J. Atmos. Sci., 45, 1741-1759. Hirota, I., 1984: Climatologyof gravity wavesin the middle atmosphere. J. Atmos. Terr. Phys., 46, 767-773. Hirota, I. and T. Niki, 1985: A statistical study of inertia-gravitywavesin the middleatmosphere.J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 63, 1055-1066. Hirota, I. and T. Niki, 1986: Inertia-gravitywavesin the troposphereand stratosphere observedby the MURadar. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 64, 995-999. Lindzen,R.S., 1981: Turbulenceand stress owingto gravity wave and tidal breakdown. J. Geophys. Res.,86C, 9707-9714. Okabe, M., 1985: Nature of angular errors in radiotracking and objective method of correction for wind-aloftobservation. J. Meteor. Res.,37, 191210. Thompson, R.O.R.Y., 1978: Observationof inertial wavesin the stratosphere. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc.,104, 691-698. レー ウィ ンゾ ンデ観 測 に基 づ く 下部 成層 圏小 規模 擾乱 の解 析 北村 康 夫 ・廣 田 勇 (京都大学理学部地球物理学教室) 近 年 、 中 層 大 気 の 運 動 量 収 支 を 説 明 す る う え で 、 下 層 大 気 中 に起 源 を もつ と考 え られ る伝 播 性 の 内部 重 力 波 が 注 目 され て い る。 本 研 究 で は 、 日本 各 地 で の レ ー ウ ィン ゾ ン デ観 測 に よ って 得 られ た1986年 のデ ー タ を も と に 、 下 部 成 層 圏 の 風 と温 度 場 に 見 られ る小 規 模 な擾 乱 に つ い て 詳 細 な 統 計 的 解 析 を行 な っ た 。 まず 、 擾 乱 は 冬 と春 に 多 く見 られ 、 そ の 強 度 変 動 は 東 西 風 の 強 さ の 季 節 変 化 と一 致 し て い る。 ま た そ の 最 大 活 動 域 は 亜 熱 帯 ジ ェッ トか ら連 な り、 そ の 北 端 上 部 に あ た る北 緯40゜ 高 度15∼20km付 して い る 。 近 を 中心 に分 布 October 1989 Y. Kitamura and I. Hirota 次 に 個 々 の 擾 乱 に注 目す る と、 そ の 鉛 直 ス ケ ー ル は2∼5kmの 831 もの が 卓 越 し、 南 北 方 向 に は数 百kmの 範 囲 に 及 ん で い る 。 鉛 直 方 向 に ハ ン ドパ ス フ ィ ル タ ー を か け て や る とそ れ らの 特 徴 的 な 波 動 構 造 が 顕 著 と な り、 東 西 風 擾 乱 に対 す る温 度 擾 乱 の遅 れ 、南 北 風 擾 乱 に 対 す る東 西 風 擾 乱 の遅 れ は と も に-180゜ ∼-90゜ の もの が 卓 越 して い る こ とが わ か る。 これ を慣 性 重 力 波 の 位 相 関 係 に あ て は め て 解 釈 す る と、 北 西 下 向 き の 波 数 ベ ク トル を 持 っ て い る こ とに な り、 い ま注 目 して い る波 動 が エ ネ ル ギ ー を北 西 上 向 き に輸 送 して い る こ と を示 す 。 こ の 波 数 ベ ク トル の 偏 向 性 は 、 平 均 流 の 臨 界 層 に よ って 特 定 の 波 の み が 選 択 さ れ る結 果 と 考 え られ る。 以 上 の こ とか ら、 この 擾 乱 の 発 生 と特 徴 的 構 造 は 亜 熱 帯 ジ ェッ トの 強 さ と向 き と に密 接 に 関 係 して い る と推 論 さ れ る 。