Gravity wave spectra morphology in the Arctic and non-Arctic lower atmosphere
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Wright, Melanie C
- Source
- Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
- Subject
- universal spectrum
Fluid Dynamics
Other Physics
gravity waves
analysis methods
VHF
radar
- Language
- English
The spectral analysis of data from three VHF radars (one high-Arctic and two mid-latitudes) show support for the universal spectrum theory for gravity waves in the lower atmosphere (altitudes of 2.0-11.0 km), provided that the impact of the off-vertical beam and noise are taken into consideration. This analysis also reveals that local gravity wave generation is of secondary importance, but still significant for determining the spectra. A total of eight spectral methods were considered and scrutinized for the purposes of determining gravity wave spectra from VHF radar data. A definition for the “best” method was given and examined. The method selected as the “best” for the analysis presented was a date-compensated discrete Fourier transform with a Hamming window.