Measurements of Quasi-monochromatic Gravity Waves and Estimates of Turbulence in the Polar Night Jet

Using the Doppler-Rayleigh lidars at Kühlungsborn (54°N, 12°E) and ALOMAR (69° N, 16° E), we have obtained simultaneous vertical profiles of horizontal wind and temperature on the poleward flank of the Polar Night Jet. This study presents a case where a modified hodograph technique was applied to identify quasi-monochromatic gravity waves within the high wind speed regime of the jet's flank. Our analysis reveals a reduction in gravity wave kinetic and potential energy within the core of the Polar Night Jet for both upward- and downward-propagating waves, attributed to a strong wind shear layer.

We will present a statistical overview of intrinsic gravity wave parameters for all resolved waves in the observation.  We will demonstrate our ability to resolve low amplitude waves in the lidar observation down to amplitudes of ~0.5 K in the stratosphere.

As an extension, we will show preliminary attempts to estimate energy fluxes from the lidar data using structure-function and compared these results with hodograph-derived gravity wave energies to investigate turbulent energy transfer rates within the Polar Night Jet.