This thesis presents the development of a software model that simulates a payload instrument onboard the MATS satellite. The goal of this model is to provide an understanding of how the instrument impacts the measured data. This model is important for error analysis and may help in correcting the measured data for systematic flaws in the instrument. The software will consist of 5 main modules as follows: Scene Generator, Optics Module,Stray Light Module, Charge-Coupled Device Module and Electronics Module. This thesis forms a basic foundation for the software by designing the CCD module and a part of the Optics module, and concludes the effects of both on the output of the system. It takes into account important mission defined procedures that ultimately aim to improve image quality, resolve vertical structures in different bandwidths and analyze noise effects on the measured data.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’obtenir une meilleure connaissance des ondes de gravité atmosphériques, de leurs sources et caractéristiques, et de leur propagation au moyen d’observations ballons et de simulations. Les ballons pressurisés (SPBs) utilisés dans cette thèse sont une des meilleures plateformes d’observations des ondes de gravité, et permettent d’obtenir l’ensemble de leurs caractéristiques. Les modèles à haute résolution donnent une description complète de l’écoulement, non seulement des ondes, mais aussi de leurs sources. Nous avons combiné mesures par SPBs et modélisation pour décrire les ondes de gravité et évaluer le réalisme des champs d’ondes de gravité dans des sorties de modèles. En s’appuyant sur les observations de PreConcordiasi (2010), les ondes de gravité convectives sont décrites aux Tropiques sur l’ensemble de la campagne, ainsi que sur un cas de cyclone tropical en développement. Dans un deuxième temps, les observations de la campagne Concordiasi (2010) nous permettent de quantifier le réalisme du champ d’onde de gravité résolu aux hautes latitudes (hémisphère sud) décrit dans les analyses de l’ECMWF. Un bon accord géographique et saisonnier est observé pour les flux de quantité de mouvement et l’intermittence. Cependant, il est montré que la magnitude des flux est sous-estimée dans les analyses de l’ECMWF. Enfin, une contribution aux campagnes opérationnelles ballons est apportée, en se focalisant sur les ballons stratosphériques ouverts qui sont le plus grand défi pour le CNES. Pour des cas d’étude lors de la campagne Strapolété (2009), nous montrons que l’incertitude sur la position de retombée des ballons peut être réduite dans une configuration simple en assimilant des observations par radiosondages. / The goal of this thesis is to obtain a better knowledge of the atmospheric gravity waves in the atmosphere, of their sources and characteristics, and their propagation using balloon observations and modeling. The superpressure balloons (SPBs) used in this thesis are one of the best platform to observe gravity waves, and allow us to retrieve the ensemble of their characteristics. High-resolution models provide a complete description of the flow, not only of the waves, but also of their sources. We have combined SPB measurements and modeling in order to describe the gravity waves and evaluate the gravity wave field in model outputs. Using the observations from PreConcordiasi (2010), the convective gravity waves are described in the Tropics during the whole campaign, and also for a case of developing Tropical Cyclone. Second, observations from the Concordiasi campaign (2010) allow us to quantify the realism of the resolved gravity wave field in the ECMWF analyses at high latitudes (Southern Hemisphere). A good geographical and seasonal agreement is found for the momentum fluxes and the intermittency. However, it is shown that the magnitude is underestimated in the ECMWF. Finally, we bring a contribution to the operational balloon campaigns, with a focus on the open stratospheric balloons, which constitute the greatest challenge for the CNES. For cases during the Strapolété campaign, we show that the uncertainty on the final touchdown position of the balloons can be reduced using a simple setup that assimilates radiosoundings.

Abstract This study presents the characteristics of small-scale gravity waves in the mesosphere region as derived from the imaging riometer data at high altitude (~90 km) over SANAE (72˚S, 3˚W). Wavelet analysis and FFT (Fast Fourier transform) have been applied to extract short period gravity wave parameters for the year 2000. The horizontal wavelength, phase speed and observed period of gravity waves are typically 10-100 km, 5-60 m.s-1 and 3-60 minutes, respectively. The horizontal propagation direction is north-eastward throughout the year. This could probably be due to selective filtering by the zonal wind. Zonal and meridional winds in the region of the MLT (mesosphere and lower thermosphere) have been measured using HF radars at high latitudes in the southern hemisphere. Data from January 2000 to December 2003 have been used with the aim of investigating the characteristics of planetary wave activity at ~90 km. For SANAE and Halley stations, 2-, 5-, 10-, 16- and 20-day planetary waves are dominant in summer and winter. The results show the seasonal variations of the mean winds, which are caused by the internal variability of the quasi stationary planetary waves. Planetary wave coupling processes between UKMO assimilated and mesospheric data have also been investigated. The cross wavelet results show a strong coupling during winter months. The results suggest that planetary waves are generated at lower atmospheric heights and propagate upwards into mesospheric heights. However, not all observed disturbances in mesospheric heights can be explained by the propagation of planetary waves from lower atmospheric heights.

Using a global circulation model of the middle atmosphere we analyze the influence of different tropospheric gravity wave amplitude distributions in the gravity wave parameterization on the mean circulation. Thereby we compare the standard configuration, which includes a simple zonal mean weighting of gravity wave amplitudes with a more realistic zonal mean weighting obtained from measurements using GPS radio occultations and a GW distribution in both latitude and longitude. The results show a stronger polar vortex and a descent of the meridional wind jet in the mesopause. Furthermore, two-dimensional weightings from the measurements are considered in order to analyze nonzonal effects resulting especially in stationary planetary waves. In this case we obtain a stronger stationary planetary wave and find enhanced equatorward wave motions in the lower stratosphere. These results give reason for further investigations about the impact of gravity waves on the Brewer-Dobson circulation. / Mit Hilfe eines globalen Zirkulationsmodells für die mittlere Atmosphäre untersuchen wir den Einfluss verschiedener in der Troposphäre festgelegter Verteilungen der Schwerewellenamplitude in der Schwerewellenparametrisierung des Modells auf die mittlere Zirkulation. Dazu vergleichen wir den Standardfall zonal gemittelter künstlicher Wichtungen der Schwerewellenamplituden mit sowohl zonal gemittelten als auch längen-breitenabhängigen Wichtungen aus GPS-Radiookkultationensmessungen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen stärkeren Polarwirbel und ein Absinken des meridionalen Windjets in der Mesopause. Zusätzlich wurden zweidimensionale Wichtungen aus den GPS-Radiookkultationen ausgwertet, um den Einfluss planetarer Wellen zu analysieren. In diesem Fall lässt sich eine äquatorwärts gerichtete Verstärkung der Wellenbewegung in der unteren Stratosphäre feststellen. Diese Ergebnisse geben Anlass für weitere Nachforschungen über den Einfluss von Schwerewellen auf die Brewer-Dobson-Zirkulation.

The main mission of the JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory) Collaborationis to observe Cosmic Rays. These high energy particles come from a variety of sources and bombard the Earth all the time. However, the higher the energy, the lower the flux, and particles with an energy above 1018eV (called Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays or UHECRs) are so sparse that just a few might hit the atmosphere in a year. When CRs, and UHECRs, hit the atmosphere they cause what is called Extensive Air Showers, EAS, a cascade of secondary particles. This limits the effectiveness of ground based observatories, and that is where theJEM-EUSO Collaboration comes in. The goal is to measure UHECRs, by observing the fluorescence of the EAS from space. This way huge areas of the atmosphere can be covered and both galactic hemispheres can be studied. Since the JEM-EUSO instruments are telescopes measuring in the near UV range, a lot of other phenomena can be observed. One of these applications is UV nightglow. Airglow in general are lights in the sky which are emitted from the atmosphere itself, while nightglow is simply the nighttime airglow. There are many uses of airglow, and one of these is as a medium to observe atmospheric gravity waves. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how a space-based photon counting telescope, such as those of the JEM-EUSO Collaboration, can be used to measure disturbances in the terrestrial nightglow, to identify atmospheric gravity waves. To accomplish this, a theoretical basis for these interactions was explored and a simple scenario was built to explore the plausibility of measuring UV nightglow modulations. The aim was to see what variables would affect a measurement, and how important they were. Along side this, a calibration was conducted on one of the JEM-EUSO Collaborations instruments, the EUSO-TA (EUSO-Telescope Array). The goal in the end was to try and measurethe night sky, to complement the calculations. The investigation showed that the conditions during the measurement are very important to the measurement. This includes things like background intensity, nightglow activity, and magnitude/shape of the modulations. Of more importance though are the parameters which can be actively changed to improve the measurement, the most important of which is measurement time. It was concluded that a measurement of the nightglow modulation should be, under the right conditions, possible to do with a currently operating instrument, the Mini-EUSO, or similar instrument. The calibration of the EUSO-TA involved a series of repairs and tests, which highlighted some strengths and weaknesses of the instrument. However, the calibration itself produced few workable results that in the best case scenario reduced the focal surface to an unevenly biased 2-by-2 Elementary Cell square. Unfortunately this would not be sufficient to do proper measurements with, but the process did point out shortcomings with the then involved sensors, as well as some problematic aspects of the software operating the instrument.

A Rayleigh-scatter lidar operated from Utah State University (41.7°N, 111.8°W) for a period spanning 11 years ― 1993 through 2004. Of the 900 nights observed, data on 150 extended to 90 km or above. They were the ones used in these studies related to atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) between 45 and 90 km. This is the first study of AGWs with an extensive data set that spans the whole mesosphere. Using the temperature and temperature gradient profiles, we produced a climatology of the Brunt-Väisälä (buoyancy) angular frequency squared, N2 (rad/s)2. The minimum and maximum values of N2 vary between 2.2×10-4 (rad/s)2 and 9.0×10-4 (rad/s)2. The corresponding buoyancy periods vary between 7.0 and 3.5 minutes. While for long averages the atmosphere above Logan, Utah, is convectively stable, all-night and hourly profiles showed periods of convective instability (i.e., negative N2). The N2 values were often significantly different from values derived from the NRL-MSISe00 model atmosphere because of the effects of inversion layers and semiannual variability in the lidar data. Relative density fluctuation profiles with 3-km altitude resolution and 1-hour temporal resolution showed the presence of monochromatic gravity waves on almost every night throughout the mesosphere. The prevalent values of vertical wavelength and vertical phase velocity were 12-16 km and 0.5-0.6 m/s, respectively. However, the latter has the significant seasonal variation. Using these two observed parameters, buoyancy periods, and the AGW dispersion relation, we derived the ranges of horizontal wavelength, phase velocity, and source distance. The prevalent values were 550-950 km, 32-35 m/s, and 2500-3500 km, respectively. The potential energy per unit mass Ep showed great night-to-night variability, up to a factor of 20, at all heights. Ep grew at approximately the adiabatic rate below 55-65 km and above 75-80 km. Step function decreases in Ep imply that the AGWs in between gave up considerable energy to the background atmosphere. In addition, Ep varies seasonally. Below 70 km, it has a semiannual variation with a maximum in winter and minima in the equinoxes. At the highest altitudes it has an annual variation with a maximum in winter and a minimum in summer.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Meteorology, 1980. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Bibliography: leaves 147-151. / by Ross N. Hoffman. / Ph.D.

The effects of propagation of a short internal gravity wave through an inertia wave on internal wave stability is analyzed and parameterized. The interactions are specifically between a short wave packet and a large inertia wave packet. The short wave packet is a wave bounded with a Gaussian envelope with high frequencies and scales in the hundreds of meters horizontally and tens of meters vertically. The inertia wave packet is also an enveloped wave but with frequencies close to the rotation of the earth and scales in the thousands of meters in the horizontal and hundreds of meters in the vertical. The wave-wave interactions are modeled using ray theory and 2d non-linear numerical models. Ray tracing is used because it is less computationally expensive, however it fails at regions of strong refraction also known as caustics. To measure stability the steepness is calculated from the 2d non-linear methods and it is compared with estimates found in the linear theory. It is determined that the estimates of the short wave steepness from linear theory are qualitatively comparable. A quantifiable comparison, although more difficult, resulted in adjustment factors to the ray tracing results. It is also found that for the particular cases modeled, convective instabilities are predominant and the influence of the shear exerted by the large inertia wave is insignificant. Instability time scales are included in the stability analysis and estimates of overturning and wave-breaking are developed for different wave-wave interactions. From the stability analysis it is found that in general the faster the short wave propagates the more likely it is to conform to both of the conditions required for wave breaking (i.e presence of instabilities and instability time scales longer than the timescale of the short wave).

Gravity wave (GW) breaking and associated GW drag is not uniformly distributed among latitudes and longitudes. In particular, regions of enhanced GW breaking, so-called GW hotspots, have been identified, major Northern Hemisphere examples being located above the Rocky Mountains, the Himalayas and the East Asian region. These hotspots influence the middle atmosphere circulation both individually and in combination. Their interference is here examined by performing simulations including (i) the respective single GW hotspots, (ii) two GW hotspots, and (iii) all three GW hotspots with a simplified global circulation model. The combined GW hotspots lead to a modification of the polar vortex in connection with a zonal mean flow decrease and an increase of the temperature at higher latitudes. The different combinations of GW hotspots mainly prevent the stationary planetary wave (SPW) 1 from propagating upward at midlatitudes leading to a decrease in energy and momentum transfer in the middle atmosphere caused by breaking SPW 1, and in turn to an acceleration of the zonal mean flow at lower latitudes. In contrast, the GW hotspot above the Rocky Mountains alone causes an increase in SPW 1 amplitude and Eliassen–Palm flux (EP flux), inducing enhanced negative EP divergence, decelerating the zonal mean flow at higher latitudes. Consequently, none of the combinations of different GW hotspots is comparable to the impact of the Rocky Mountains GW hotspot alone. The reason is that the GW hotspots mostly interfere nonlinearly. Depending on the longitudinal distance between two GW hotspots, the interference between the combined Rocky Mountains and East Asian GW hotspots is more additive than the interference between the combined Rocky Mountains and Himalaya GW hotspots. While the Rocky Mountains and the East Asian GW hotspots are longitudinally displaced by 105°, the Rocky Mountains are shifted by 170° to the Himalayas. Moreover, while the East Asian and the Himalayas are located side by side, the interference between these GW hotspots is the most nonlinear because they are latitudinally displaced by 20°. In general, the SPW activity, e.g., represented in SPW amplitudes, EP flux or Plumb flux, is strongly reduced, when the GW hotspots are interacting with each other. Thus, the interfering GW hotspots mostly have a destructive effect on SPW propagation and generation.

Numerical experiments with the Middle and Upper Atmosphere Model with modified parameterization settings were carried out to study the response of the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) wind circulation to the non-orographic gravity waves (GWs) originating from the lower atmosphere. The modification of the phase speed spectrum controls the height of the zonal wind reversal due to strengthening of the westerly winds. The simulation results obtained for various latitudinal distributions of the intensity of non-orographic GWs at the source level show that the zonal circulation is most sensitive to GWs variability at high latitudes. The latitudinal distribution of GW intensity, produced by the global distribution of convective processes and seasonal variations in GW sources, and modified phase speed spectrum made it possible to simulate the major zonal circulation structures observed by MLT wind radar. / Numerische Experimente mit dem Middle and Upper Atmosphere Model mit modifizierten Parametriesierungseinstellungen wurden durchgeführt, um die Reaktion der Zirkulation der in der Mesosphäre / unteren Thermosphäre (MLT) auf nicht-orographische Schwerewellen (SW) zu untersuchen, die von der unteren Atmosphäre ausgehen. Die Modifikation des Phasengeschwindikeitsspektrums steuert die Höhe der zonalen Windumkehr aufgrund der Verstärkung der Westwinde. Die Simulationsergebnisse für verschiedene Breitenverteilungen der Intensität nicht-orographischer SW in Quellenhöhe zeigen, dass die zonale Zirkulation am stärksten auf SW-Variabilität in hohen Breiten reagiert. Die Breitenverteilung der SW-Intensität, die durch die globale Verteilung konvektiver Prozesse und saisonaler Variationen der SW-Quellen erzeugt wird, und das modifizierte Phasengeschwindkeitsspektrum ermöglichten es, die wichgsten zonalen Zirkulationsstrukturen zu simulieren, die von einem MLT-Windradar beobachtet wurden.