HIRDLS observations of global gravity wave absolute momentum fluxes: A wavelet based approach

• Wavelet technique for estimating the vertical wavelength of gravity waves.
• Global variation of absolute gravity wave momentum fluxes.
• Space based momentum flux estimations.

Using wavelet technique for detection of height varying vertical and horizontal wavelengths of gravity waves, the absolute values of gravity wave momentum fluxes are estimated from High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) temperature measurements. Two years of temperature measurements (2005 December–2007 November) from HIRDLS onboard EOS-Aura satellite over the globe are used for this purpose. The least square fitting method is employed to extract the 0–6 zonal wavenumber planetary wave amplitudes, which are removed from the instantaneous temperature profiles to extract gravity wave fields. The vertical and horizontal wavelengths of the prominent waves are computed using wavelet and cross correlation techniques respectively. The absolute momentum fluxes are then estimated using prominent gravity wave perturbations and their vertical and horizontal wavelengths. The momentum fluxes obtained from HIRDLS are compared with the fluxes obtained from ground based Rayleigh LIDAR observations over a low latitude station, Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E) and are found to be in good agreement. After validation, the absolute gravity wave momentum fluxes over the entire globe are estimated. It is found that the winter hemisphere has the maximum momentum flux magnitudes over the high latitudes with a secondary maximum over the summer hemispheric low-latitudes. The significance of the present study lies in introducing the wavelet technique for estimating the height varying vertical and horizontal wavelengths of gravity waves and validating space based momentum flux estimations using ground based lidar observations.