Long-period planetary waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere above Davis, Antarctica

Abstract

The accumulation of MF radar wind and hydroxyl temperature measurements at Davis from 1997 to 2005 has enabled the compilation of a climatology of long-period (period >1 day) wave activity. A time domain filtering technique that makes allowance for the differing sampling characteristics of the measurements is described and wave amplitudes are presented for 1.7-4, 4-8 and 8-16 day period bands. Product averages of the time series yield horizontal heat (over(v′ T′, -)) and momentum (over(u′ v′, -)) fluxes for the height of the hydroxyl layer (approximately 86 km). The climatology is then discussed in terms of current knowledge of planetary wave characteristics and forcing. Heat and momentum fluxes during the year of the southern hemisphere stratospheric warming (2002) are also presented. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.