Gravity wave characteristics derived from radiosonde observations at Lauder (45 S 169 E) during DEEPWAVE-NZ

Abstract

The field phase of DEEPWAVE-NZ (DEEP propagating gravity WAVE experiment over New Zealand) took place in June and July 2014 on the southern island of New Zealand. One goal of DEEPWAVE-NZ was to explore the propagation of gravity waves into the middle atmosphere which were excited in the troposphere by the flow across the southern island. Airborne measurements with the NSF/NCAR GV and the DLR Falcon research aircraft were complemented with ground-based measurements at various stations on the southern island. At Lauder (45 S 169 E), long-lasting upper stratospheric and mesospheric observations were taken by the DLR Rayleigh lidar and the University of Utah Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper and Airglow Imager. To provide data in the lower atmosphere up to 30 km altitude, radiosonde measurements were conducted in periods of mountain wave activity. On ICAM we present wave properties and propagation characteristics determined from 98 soundings reaching a mean height of 31.3 km. Therefore, different analysis methods such as rotary spectra and wavelet analysis are used. For selected cases those findings are combined with results from other instruments (e.g. ground-based lidar) and are related to the prevailing meteorological situation based on high-resolution ECMWF analyses.