Statistical analysis of 16-year phase velocity distribution of mesospheric and ionospheric waves in airglow images: Comparison between Rikubetsu and Shigaraki, Japan

A new spectral analysis technique has been developed to obtain power spectra in the horizontal phase velocity by using the 3-D Fast Fourier Transform [Matsuda et al., JGR, 2014]. Takeo et al. (JGR, 2017) studied spectral parameters of atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) in the mesopause region and medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) in the thermosphere over 16 years by using airglow images at wavelengths of 557.7 nm (emission altitudes: 90-100 km) and 630.0 nm (200-300 km) obtained at Shigaraki (34.8N, 136.1E), Japan. In this study, we have applied the same spectral analysis technique to the 557.7 nm and 630.0-nm airglow images obtained at Rikubetsu (43.5N, 143.8E), Japan, for 16 years from 1999 to 2014. We compared spectral features of AGWs and MSTIDs over 16 years observed at Shigaraki and Rikubetsu, which are separated by 1,174 km. The propagation direction of mesospheric AGWs seen in 557.7-nm airglow images is northeastward in summer and southwestward in winter at both Shigaraki and Rikubetsu, probably due to wind filtering of these waves by the mesospheric jet. In winter, the propagation direction of AGWs gradually shifted from southwestward to northwestward as time progresses from evening to morning at both stations. We suggest that this local-time shift of propagation direction can also be explained by the wind filtering effect. The propagation direction of AGWs changed from southwestward to northeastward at Rikubetsu on the day of the reversal of eastward zonal wind at 60N and 10 hPa (about 35 km in altitude) by the stratospheric sudden warming (SSW), while such a SSW-associated change was not identified at Shigaraki, indicating that the effect of SSW wind reversal reached only to the Rikubetsu latitudes. For MSTIDs, there is a negative correlation between yearly variation of powers spectral density and F10.7 flux and propagation direction is southwestward in all season at both Shigaraki and Rikubetsu. This negative correlation can be explained by considering the linear growth rate of the Perkins instability which is a cause of the nighttime MSTIDs.