Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity Commons^™

Localization Effects On The Dissipation Of Gravity Wave Packets In The Upper Mesophere And Lower Thermosphere, C. J. Heale, R. L. Walterscheid, J. B. Snively

Publications

Gravity waves not subject to breaking or filtering will dissipate due to viscosity and thermal conduction in the thermosphere. However, the evolutions of wave packets, and the altitudes they reach, are highly dependent upon the spectral content. In this paper, a 2‐D numerical model is used to investigate the effect of spatial localization (and thus spectral content) of a wave packet on its dissipation, dispersion, and spectral evolution. It is found that most wave packets launched below the thermosphere evolve to smaller central vertical wavelengths as the faster, longer vertical wavelength components reach the dissipative thermosphere and are removed first, …