Articles | Volume 18, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-883-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-883-2018
Research article
 | 
24 Jan 2018
Research article |  | 24 Jan 2018

Universal power law of the gravity wave manifestation in the AIM CIPS polar mesospheric cloud images

Pingping Rong, Jia Yue, James M. Russell III, David E. Siskind, and Cora E. Randall

Data sets

AIM CIPS data Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) http://lasp.colorado.edu/aim/download-data-L2.php

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Short summary
There is a massive manifestation of atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) in polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) at the summer mesopause, which serves as indicators of the atmospheric dynamics and climate change. We obtained a universal power law that governs the GW display morphology and clarity level throughout the wave population residing in PMCs. Higher clarity refers to more distinct exhibition of the features. A GW tracking algorithm is used to identify the waves and to sort the albedo power.
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