Gravity Wave Morphology During the 2018 Sudden Stratospheric Warming
Simulated by a Whole Neutral Atmosphere General Circulation Model
Abstract
Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) during the February 2018 sudden
stratospheric warming (SSW) were simulated using the T639L340 whole
neutral atmosphere general circulation model. Their characteristic
morphology around the drastically evolving polar vortex was revealed by
three-dimensional (3D) visualization and ray-tracing analyses. The 3D
morphology of simulated GWs was described for the three key days that
represent the pre-SSW, the mature stage for the vortex splitting, and
the late SSW. The combination of strong winds along the polar vortex
edge and underneath the tropospheric winds with similar wind directions
consisted of the deep waveguide for the upward-propagating GWs, forming
GW hot spots in the middle atmosphere. The GW hot spots associated with
the development of the SSW were limited to North America and Greenland,
and they included the typical upward-propagating orographic GWs with
relatively long vertical wavelengths. Different types of characteristic
GW signatures were also recognized around the Canadian sub-vortex (CV).
The GWs having short vertical wavelengths formed near the surface and
obliquely propagated over long distances along the CV winds. The
non-orographic GWs with short vertical wavelengths formed in the middle
stratosphere through the spontaneous adjustment of flow imbalance around
the CV. Those GWs cyclonically ascended into the mesosphere along CV
winds.