Impact of Non-Classical Gravity-Wave Dynamics on Middle-Atmosphere Mean Flow and Solar Tides

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Main Authors: Kühner, Tobias, Voelker, Georg Sebastian, Achatz, Ulrich
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kühner, Tobias
Voelker, Georg Sebastian
Achatz, Ulrich
author_facet Kühner, Tobias
Voelker, Georg Sebastian
Achatz, Ulrich
contents Conventional gravity-wave (GW) parameterizations neglect three aspects of GW dynamics. Instead of momentum and entropy fluxes they use Eliassen-Palm fluxes, thereby neglecting the possibility that resolved flow are not in geostrophic and hydrostatic balance. They neglect the transience of the GW field and of the resolved flow, by determining at every time step equilibrium profiles of GW fluxes that would result if the vertical GW propagation were instantaneous. Moreover, they also do not take into account lateral GW propagation and horizontal GW fluxes. Because the prognostic GW model MS-GWaM does not need to make these assumptions, it has been used in the global weather and climate code ICON to investigate their consequences for the simulation of monthly mean zonal mean flows and of solar tides. All three aspects are found to influence the simulation results significantly. Among those, transience and lateral propagation have the strongest impact. The mean circulation in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere is affected at all latitudes and in the stratosphere at high altitudes as well. This together with the directly modified GW forcing leads also to significant differences in the migrating and nonmigrating components of solar tides. Comparisons with tides retrieved from satellite data are most favorable if both aspects are taken into account. This argues for a correspondingly generalized treatment of GW dynamics in their parameterization, as an efficient alternative to GW permitting simulations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_21939
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of Non-Classical Gravity-Wave Dynamics on Middle-Atmosphere Mean Flow and Solar Tides
Kühner, Tobias
Voelker, Georg Sebastian
Achatz, Ulrich
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Conventional gravity-wave (GW) parameterizations neglect three aspects of GW dynamics. Instead of momentum and entropy fluxes they use Eliassen-Palm fluxes, thereby neglecting the possibility that resolved flow are not in geostrophic and hydrostatic balance. They neglect the transience of the GW field and of the resolved flow, by determining at every time step equilibrium profiles of GW fluxes that would result if the vertical GW propagation were instantaneous. Moreover, they also do not take into account lateral GW propagation and horizontal GW fluxes. Because the prognostic GW model MS-GWaM does not need to make these assumptions, it has been used in the global weather and climate code ICON to investigate their consequences for the simulation of monthly mean zonal mean flows and of solar tides. All three aspects are found to influence the simulation results significantly. Among those, transience and lateral propagation have the strongest impact. The mean circulation in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere is affected at all latitudes and in the stratosphere at high altitudes as well. This together with the directly modified GW forcing leads also to significant differences in the migrating and nonmigrating components of solar tides. Comparisons with tides retrieved from satellite data are most favorable if both aspects are taken into account. This argues for a correspondingly generalized treatment of GW dynamics in their parameterization, as an efficient alternative to GW permitting simulations.
title Impact of Non-Classical Gravity-Wave Dynamics on Middle-Atmosphere Mean Flow and Solar Tides
topic Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21939