Solar Semidiurnal Tides in the Troposphere: Detection by Radar Profilers

Abstract

A short review of solar semidiurnal atmospheric tides is presented. Semidiurnal atmospheric tides have been documented in the troposphere primarily through analyses of long time series of surface pressure measurements, although the winds produced by these tides have, by now, been well documented in the middle and upper atmosphere. Recent research using UHF and very-high-frequency radar wind profilers has now identified tidal wind perturbations in tropospheric data. This review focuses on the tidal wind characteristics and the distinctive signature of this wind system in radar profiler data analyses.