Tropical stratospheric gravity wave activity and relationships to clouds

Wind measurements from NASA's ER-2 aircraft in the stratosphere are used to obtain information on the momentum flux carried by gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths between 5 and 150 km. Tropical data are compared with the cloud brightness temperature below the aircraft as an indicator of deep convective activity. A striking correlation between cold, high clouds and large gravity wave momentum flux is seen in data from the Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange Project (STEP) tropical campaign during the monsoon season over northern Australia and Indonesia. There is an enhancement in the flux carried by waves propagating against the background wind in these observations. The same analysis was performed with data from more recent ER-2 flights over the tropical Pacific Ocean during the Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment/Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft (ASHOE/MAESA), Stratospheric Tracers of Atmospheric Transport (STRAT), and Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer (POLARIS) campaigns which took place in 1994, 1995-1996, and 1997, respectively. These data also show a correlation between gravity wave momentum flux and deep convective clouds, but the relationship is much weaker, and the magnitudes of the momentum flux over the deepest clouds are about 7 times smaller than those seen in the STEP data. The reasons for these differences remain uncertain, but possibilities include both real geophysical differences and differences associated with the flight paths during the 1987 versus later campaigns.