CEDAR: Mesospheric Gravity Waves Generated by Tropospheric Convection

This three year effort will investigate the mesospheric effects of gravity waves generated by strong convection activity in large area multicell thunderstorms at tropospheric altitudes. Due to their large sizes, the multicell thunderstorms cannot be treated as point sources and require generalization of the existing gravity wave theory for cylindrical, aperture type, sources with inclusion of the resultant diffraction effects. The purpose of the project is to undertake a systematic and focused study of mesospheric effects of two and three dimensional fully nonlinear numerical models.

The outstanding scientific questions which motivate this research program are (1) What is the dynamics of mesospheric cylindrical gravity waves generated by distributed convective sources at tropospheric altitudes? (2) What are effects of the convectively generated cylindrical gravity waves on mesospheric heating rates, wind profiles, and density perturbations? In order to answer these questions, the PI will develop and apply two and three dimensional, fully non-linear, compressible models of gravity waves launched upward by distributed convective sources at tropospheric altitudes. These models will be solving a standard set of equations expressing conservation of mass, momentum and energy, and will account for realistic convective properties of tropospheric thunderstorms as well as realistic parameters of the ambient atmosphere (i.e., temperature, Brunt-Vaisala frequency, and wind profiles).