| description abstract | Four extended observational campaigns were conducted during August and November 1988 with an ST (stratosphere?troposphere) radar in southern Australia during the passage of cold fronts over the system, giving around 30 days of three-dimensional wind measurements with 15-min time and 0.5-km height resolution over the 2?11.5-km height range. Order of magnitude increases in the variance of time-fluctuating wind velocities were measured during frontal passages, which are definitively ascribed to gravity waves. The time?height morphology of the horizontal- and vertical-velocity fluctuations differed. Bursts of horizontal-velocity variance u?2 + ??2 ? 10?100 m2 s?2 arose at upper levels about a day before the frontal boundary arrived, and this activity gradually extended to lower heights as the front neared. The arrival of the frontal boundary marked a sudden reduction in this activity. After the frontal boundary passed, reduced activity persisted for ? 12 hours, after which bursts in u?2 + ??2 returned at upper levels and persisted typically for about a day. These bursts arose in regions of high mean wind speeds (?20?50 m s?1), and analysis associates this activity with a spectrum of many saturating inertia?gravity waves with long horizontal wavelengths and large ground-based phase speeds. Strong interaction between the waves and the mean flow is likely. In contrast, bursts in vertical-velocity fluctuations, w?, were confined almost entirely to the troposphere and were quasi-sinusoidal in appearance. These fluctuations are ascribed to gravity waves with high intrinsic frequencies. Significant w? amplitudes were evident both after and prior to frontal passage, but the largest amplitudes (w? ? 0.5 m s?1) occurred with the onset of strong vertical circulation when the frontal boundary arrived. The smaller w? amplitudes observed in the stratosphere are due in part to the more oblique propagation of wave energy in this more stable environment, but may also reflect vertical ducting of this activity at altitudes of small static stability just below the tropopause. Two clear cases of ducted w? oscillations are identified with the aid of radiosonde temperature data from a nearby site. Comparisons between these measurements and the limited numerical modeling of frontal gravity waves show some similarities in wave characteristics. | |
