A survey of Mixed Rossby-Gravity waves and quantification of their association with extratropical disturbances.

In this study we have conducted a survey of Mixed Rossby-Gravity (MRG) wave events in the upper troposphere and quantified their association with the intrusions of extratropical disturbances for the period 1979-2019. MRG events are identified by projecting the equatorial meridional winds at 200 hPa onto the meridional structure of theoretical MRG waves. 2390 MRG events are identified and majority (61%) of them occurred during May-October months, and 65% of the total MRG events occurred over the central-east Pacific and Atlantic Ocean domains. Not only the frequency of occurrence but also the amplitude, wavenumber and trapping scale of the MRG events are found to exhibit a clear seasonality. MRG events associated with intrusions of extratropical disturbances are identified as when the potential vorticity on the 350K isentropic surface at 15° latitude exceeded 1 PVU in the vicinity of the MRG events. We find that 37% of the MRG events are intrusion MRG events and a large majority (88%) of such events occurred over the central-east Pacific and Atlantic Ocean domains. It is also noteworthy that nearly 70% of such intrusions occurred in the winter Hemisphere where the westerly wind ducts are well developed. Over the central-east Pacific during Northern Hemispheric (NH) winter, it is observed that the amplitude of intrusion MRG events are larger and have a larger meridional extent compared to non-intrusion MRG events. They also exhibit a similar spatial scale as the extratropical disturbances implying that resonant interactions may be a primary mechanism for the genesis of MRG events. During NH summer, on the other hand, MRG events are primarily triggered by convective processes and the extratropical disturbances may be instrumental in amplifying their amplitude.