Source for the traveling planetary waves in the polar winter mesosphere and lower thermosphere: vertical coupling versus in-situ instability.

In the polar winter stratosphere, a group of eastward propagating planetary waves (relative to ground) are generated by the instability of the polar vortex and dominate the variability of chemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere. The strong polar vortex consisting of strong eastward winds support the propagation of these planetary waves until they reach the critical filtering level in the upper stratosphere. However, lidar measurements at McMurdo (78S), Antarctica illustrate the significant signatures of the planetary waves up to 110 km, making it intriguring to identify the wave source. The SD-WACCM well reproduces both local and global structure of these planeaty waves as compared with the ground-based lidar and satellite (MLS), which is thus used to derive the EP flux induced by these planetary waves. In addition to a region of positive EP flux divergence in the stratosphere where we expect to have the stratospheric planetary waves generated, a localized EP flux divergence is also found in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) at high latitudes, which likely triggers the generation the waves locally or amplifies those waves that survive from the critical level filtering. By incorporating the background winds from SD-WACCM, a stand-alone mechanistic model with gravity wave effect parameterized is applied to investigate the relative importance of the vertical propagation and in-situ instability to the generation of the planetary waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere and whether and how there two processes are coupled together. The gravity wave effect on planetary waves is also addressed. This study provides insights on the vertical wave coupling via wave-wave and wave-mean interactions in the polar winter region.