Articles | Volume 27, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-1625-2009
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-1625-2009
06 Apr 2009
 | 06 Apr 2009

Characteristics of equatorial gravity waves derived from mesospheric airglow imaging observations

S. Suzuki, K. Shiokawa, A. Z. Liu, Y. Otsuka, T. Ogawa, and T. Nakamura

Abstract. We present the characteristics of small-scale (<100 km) gravity waves in the equatorial mesopause region derived from OH airglow imaging observations at Kototabang (100.3° E, 0.2° S), Indonesia, from 2002 to 2005. We adopted a method that could automatically detect gravity waves in the airglow images using two-dimensional cross power spectra of gravity waves. The propagation directions of the waves were likely controlled by zonal filtering due to stratospheric mean winds that show a quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and the presence of many wave sources in the troposphere.