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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Observations and seismoacoustic simulations of earthquake-generated infrasound waves in non-epicentral regions

We analysed infrasound waves associated with the Gyeongju earthquake (ML 5.8) that occurred on 2016 September 12, in the southeastern Korean Peninsula. For infrasound wave detection, the Progressive Multichannel Correlation method was applied to the infrasound data set recorded at seven arrays operating in South Korea at epicentral distances ranging from 178 to 472 km. Based on the back-projection method constrained by array-dependent celerity and azimuth deviation models, the source regions were identified in both the epicentral and non-epicentral regions. Remarkably, the non-epicentral secondary sources of this earthquake were located in regions with shallow water depths: (i) the western coastal area in the Yellow Sea and (ii) the shallow ocean basin and bank in the East Sea. The location results obtained from the earthquake could be corroborated through its foreshock (ML 5.1), yielding location results consistent with those of the main shock. The generation of infrasound waves over shallow water depths was fortuitously validated by direct recordings of dominant single-frequency (~0.3 Hz) infrasound waves at close range via temporary sensors near the ocean basin and bank. We interpreted that low-frequency infrasound signals could be generated from interactions among the ocean floor, shallow seawater and atmosphere. We performed numerical simulations of seismoacoustic fields to predict ground motions on the seafloor and acoustic transmission efficiency between the water and air interface. The simulations quantified the energy transfer through different media and clarified our observational results. We found that because this solid Earth‒water‒atmosphere coupled air wave has a relatively low frequency (~0.3 Hz), it can survive propagation over long distances compared with high-frequency infrasound waves generated in inland and mountain regions. In this study, we extend our understanding of water‒atmosphere coupling and the monitoring framework for earthquake-associated non-epicentral infrasound waves, encompassing not only inland ground shaking but also shallow sea regions located far from the epicentre.

Earthquake monitoring and test-ban treaty verifica↗
NASA NTRS1995

Meso-beta scale numerical simulation studies of terrain-induced jet streak mass/momentum perturbations

Mesoscale model simulations provide insight into the complex jet streak adjustments on 11-12 July 1981 that preceded the first of two significant gravity wave events to have been generated over the Rocky Mountains in Montana. Simulations employing a variety of terrain treatments indicate that prior to wave formation, geostrophic adjustment processes modified the structure of the mid-upper tropospheric jet streak by creating secondary jetlets to the southeast of the polar jet streak in proximity to the gravity wave generation region. This simulated restructuring of the mid-upper tropospheric jet streak is the result of a four stage process. During stage 1, the wind adjusts to the mass field as the jet streak exit region propagates into the inflection point between the upstream trough and downstream ridge in the height field. Stage 2 is initiated as the mass field is forced to adjust to the new ageostrophic wind field created during stage 1. Stage 3 is defined by a second geostrophic adjustment process occurring in a similar manner but to the south and east of the adjustment which occurs during stage 1. A low-level mesoscale jetlet is formed during stage 4 in response to the low-level pressure falls that are established during stage 3. The perturbation of this jetlet, caused by orographically-induced adiabatic and diabatic physical processes, is the likely mechanism responsible for the generation of the first and second episode of observed gravity waves. The dynamics responsible for this wave episode are discussed as differential surface sensible heating inducing an orographically-forced mountain-plains solenoid, resulting in the formation of additional mesoscale jetlets and internal gravity waves. Also discussed is how convective latent heating modifies the numerically simulated terrain-induced internal gravity waves, especially their amplitude and phase velocities, which provide better agreement with those wave characteristics observed in nature. Finally, the three-dimensional linear response of a zonally uniform barotropic flow in a vertically unbounded, continuously stratified, Boussinesq atmosphere which is perturbed from geostrophic equilibrium is investigated.

Lin, Yuh-Lang↗
NASA NTRS1980

Sudden stratospheric warmings forced by mountains

A global, quasigeostrophic model of planetary wave interaction with the mean zonal flow has been used to simulate sudden stratospheric warmings forced by mean tropospheric zonal winds interacting with orography. Planetary waves m = 1 and 2 are simultaneously computed and interact with each other only through the mean zonal flow. An increase in the jet stream maximum from 36 to 48 m/sec is sufficient to initiate repeated major warmings with an approximate 80 day cycle. These results are in agreement with the observed anticorrelation of the annual variation of the winter monthly averaged jet stream strength and polar night jet strength.

Schoeberl, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Stable and unstable near-resonant states in multilevel, severely truncated, quasi-geostrophic models

Multilevel, severely truncated, quasi-geostrophic models with damping that extend from the surface to 100 km, are used to study the stationary-wave response to orography and the concomitant feedbacks on the zonal flow. For a typical winter zonal-wind profile, it is shown that large amplitude or resonant planetary waves of intermediate zonal wavenumbers of about 4 or 5 occur with an equivalent barotropic structure. It is also shown that wave-zonal flow interaction with a mountain torque and temperature transport is stable to small perturbations on the low side of resonance and unstable on the high side of resonance. Resonant zonal wavenumbers of lower wave wavenumber also occur for the same zonal profile and have a node in the vertical with a small amplitude maximum near the surface and a larger amplitude maximum in the stratosphere. Instability depends on the presence of the orography and the basic asymmetric state as Newtonian damping and surface friction are sufficient to damp the baroclinic instability associated with a linear inviscid model.

Roads, J. O.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Characteristics of finite amplitude stationary gravity waves in the atmosphere of Venus

This paper extends the study of stationary gravity waves generated near the surface of Venus reported previously by Young et al. to include finite amplitude effects associated with large amplitude waves. Waves are forced near the surface of Venus by periodic forcing. The height-dependent profiles of static stability and mean wind in the Venus atmosphere play a very important role in the evolution of the nonlinear behavior of the waves, just as they do in the linear wave solutions. Certain wave properties are qualitatively consistent with linear wave theory, such as wave trapping, resonance, and wave evanescence for short horizontal wavelenghts. However, the finite amplitude solutions also exhibit many other interesting features. In particular, for forcing amplitudes representative of those that could be expected in mountainous regions such as Aphrodite Terra, waves generated near the surface can reach large amplitudes at and above cloud levels, with clear signatures in the circulation pattern. At still higher levels, the waves can reach large enough amplitude to break, unless damping rates above the clouds are sufficient to limit wave amplitude growth. Well below cloud levels the waves develop complex flow patterns as the result of finite amplitude wave-wave interactions, and waves are generated having considerably shorter horizontal wavelenghts than that associated with the forcing near the surface. Nonlinear interactions can excite waves that are resonant with the background wind and static stability fields even when the primary surface forcing does not, and these waves can dominate the wave spectrum near cloud levels. A global map of Venus topographic slopes derived from Magellan altimetry data shows that slopes of magnitude comparable to or exceeding that used to force the model are ubiquitous over the surface.

Young, Richard E.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Ozone, aerosols and polar stratospheric clouds measurements during the EASOE Campaign

Preliminary results are presented of observations obtained during the EASOE campaign, with an airborne backscatter lidar and a ground-based DIAL ozone lidar system. Although the main signature observed on the lidar signals was due to the Pinatubo cloud which erupted in June 1991, distinct PSC events were detected on several occasions by the airborne lidar often in relation with orographic wave activity over the norvegian mountains. The ozone profiles obtained in Sodankyla with the ground based lidar are locally perturbed by the presence of the volcanic cloud. After a first correction of the aerosols effect, they present however a reasonably good agreement with the ozone sondes profiles performed on the same site.

Godin, S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Linear simulation of the stationary eddies in a general circulation model. I - The no-mountain model

A linear primitive-equation stationary-wave model is developed to describe Northern Hemisphere winter stationary eddies on a sphere, and simulation results are compared with the predictions of a flat-lower-boundary GCM in extensive graphs and maps. The linear model is shown to reproduce the general behavior of the GCM well, with 10-30-percent underestimation of amplitudes in the Northern Hemisphere extratropical upper troposphere. The response to global heating plus transient eddy flux convergences is then decomposed into responses to total tropical forcing (heating plus transients) and total extratropical forcing (upper and lower tropospheric transients and latent, sensible, and radiative heating). The quality of the simulation is found to deteriorate rapidly if transient forcing is omitted, although somewhat better results are obtained by substituting thermal damping for transient forcing. The importance of low-level-transient parameterization for theories of time-mean low-level flow is emphasized.

Nigam, Sumant↗
NASA NTRS1990

The effects of large-scale topography on the circulation in low-order models

This paper investigates the effect of topography on circulation produced by low-order quasi-geostrophic models that are capable of reproducing many basic features of midlatitude general circulation in the absence of topography. Using a simple two-level spectral model, time-mean stationary waves and low-frequency phenomena were examined for three different topographic configurations, of which two consisted of a sinusoidal mountain-valley structure, and the third was the Fourier representation of an isolated mountain peak. In the experiment with an isolated mountain, it was found that the time-mean wave in the model was highly dependent on the operation of wave-wave interactions, which had a significant impact on stationary waves through modifications in the mean zonal flow.

O'Brien, Enda↗
NASA NTRS1995

Convectively Generated Gravity Waves In The Tropical Stratosphere: Case Studies And Importance For The Circulation Of The Middle Atmosphere

The advent of high altitude aircraft measurements in the stratosphere over tropical convective systems has made it possible to observe the mesoscale disturbances in the temperature field that these systems excite. Such measurements show that these disturbances have horizontal scales comparable to those of the underlying anvils (about 50-100 km) with peak to peak theta surface variations of about 300-400 meters. Moreover, correlative wind measurements from the tropical phase of the Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange Project (STEP) clearly show that these disturbances are gravity waves. We present two case studies of anvil-scale gravity waves over convective systems. Using steady and time-dependent linear models of gravity wave propagation in the stratosphere, we show: (1) that the underlying convective systems are indeed the source of the observed phenomena; and (2) that their generating mechanism can be crudely represented as flow over a time-dependent mountain. We will then discuss the effects gravity waves of the observed amplitudes have on the circulation of the middle atmosphere, particularly the quasi-biennial, and semiannual oscillations.

Pfister, Leonhard↗
NASA NTRS1984

Stationary Rossby wave propagation through easterly layers

The zonal mean basic state sensitivity of the steady response to midlatitude mountain forcing is examined through the numerical solution of linearized shallow water equations on a sphere. The zonal mean basic state consists of meridionally varying zonal winds and meridional winds. Attention is given to cases in which the former are westerly everywhere, except within a tropical region in which they are easterly. A zonal wavenumber three mountain confined to the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes provides the forcing. It is concluded that critical latitude effects on wave propagation are sensitive to mean meridional circulation structure in the critical latitude region of the model.

Schneider, E. K.↗
NASA NTRS1981

A simple mechanism for blocking

Numerical experiments show that blocking in a barotropic atmosphere can occur as a resonant enhancement of Rossby lee waves forced by two stationary sources of potential vorticity. In particular, if an upstream source of stationary forcing enhances the northerly flow over orography, then blocking occurs downstream of the mountain. In an analytical study, we show that, in the presence of friction, Rossby lee waves generate a rectified current downstream of the mountain, which does not vanish in the limit of zero friction. The relevance of this study to observed generation of blocking in the Atlantic Ocean and immediately upstream of the Rockies is discussed.

Kalnay-Rivas, E.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Atmospheric Rivers in the Eastern and Midwestern United States Associated With Baroclinic Waves

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) significantly impact the hydrological cycle and associated extremes in western continental regions. Recent studies suggest ARs also influence water resources and extremes in continental interiors. AR detection tools indicate that AR conditions are relatively frequent in areas east of the Rocky Mountains. The origin of these ARs, whether from synoptic-scale waves or mesoscale processes, is unclear. This study uses meteorological composite maps and transects of AR conditions during the four seasons. The analysis reveals that ARs east of the Rockies are associated with long-wave, baroclinic Rossby waves. This result demonstrates that eastern North American ARs are dynamically similar to their western coastal counterparts, though mechanisms for vertical moisture flux differ between the two. These findings provide a foundation for understanding future climate change and ARs in this region and offer new methods for evaluating climate model simulations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Neutron star crust can support a large ellipticity

ABSTRACT Non-axisymmetrical deformations of the crust on rapidly rotating neutron stars are one of the main targets of searches for continuous gravitational waves. The maximum ellipticity, or fractional difference in moments of inertia, which can be supported by deformations of the crust (known as ‘mountains’), provides an important upper limit on the strength of these continuous gravitational wave sources. We use the formalism developed by Gittins and Andersson, along with a deforming force that acts mainly in the transverse direction, to obtain a maximum ellipticity of 7.4 × 10−6. This is larger than the original results that Gittins and Andersson obtained but consistent with earlier calculations by Ushomirsky, Cutler, and Bildsten. This suggests that rotating neutron stars could be strong sources of continuous gravitational waves.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗