Articles | Volume 23, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-949-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-949-2023
Research article
 | 
19 Jan 2023
Research article |  | 19 Jan 2023

Signatures of gravity wave-induced instabilities in balloon lidar soundings of polar mesospheric clouds

Natalie Kaifler, Bernd Kaifler, Markus Rapp, and David C. Fritts

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Cited articles

Baumgarten, G. and Fritts, D. C.: Quantifying Kelvin-Helmholtz instability dynamics observed in noctilucent clouds: 1. Methods and observations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 119, 9324–9337, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD021832, 2014. a
Baumgarten, G., Fiedler, J., Fricke, K. H., Gerding, M., Hervig, M., Hoffmann, P., Müller, N., Pautet, P.-D., Rapp, M., Robert, C., Rusch, D., von Savigny, C., and Singer, W.: The noctilucent cloud (NLC) display during the ECOMA/MASS sounding rocket flights on 3 August 2007: morphology on global to local scales, Ann. Geophys., 27, 953–965, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-953-2009, 2009. a
Berger, U., Baumgarten, G., Fiedler, J., and Lübken, F.-J.: A new description of probability density distributions of polar mesospheric clouds, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4685–4702, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4685-2019, 2019. a
Chandran, A., Rusch, D. W., Thomas, G. E., Palo, S. E., Baumgarten, G., Jensen, E. J., and Merkel, A. W.: Atmospheric gravity wave effects on polar mesospheric clouds: A comparison of numerical simulations from CARMA 2D with AIM observations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 117, D20104, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JD017794, 2012. a
Chu, X., Yamashita, C., Espy, P. J., Nott, G. J., Jensen, E. J., Liu, H.-L., Huang, W., and Thayer, J. P.: Responses of polar mesospheric cloud brightness to stratospheric gravity waves at the South Pole and Rothera, Antarctica, J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phy., 71, 434–445, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2008.10.002, 2009. a
Short summary
We used a lidar to measure polar mesospheric clouds from a balloon floating in the upper stratosphere. The thin-layered ice clouds at 83 km altitude are perturbed by waves. The high-resolution lidar soundings reveal small-scale structures induced by the breaking of those waves. We study these patterns and find that they occur very often. We show their morphology and discuss associated dynamical physical processes, which help to interpret case studies and to guide modelling.
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