The excitation of atmospheric oscillations

Abstract

An investigation is made into the excitation of large-scale atmospheric oscillations by the direct absorption of incoming solar radiation by atmospheric ozone. The atmospheric temperature profile is chosen to agree favourably with the main features of the observed temperature distribution, particularly as regards the maximum around the 50 km height; this distribution is shown to be non-resonant as far as the solar semidiurnal component is concerned. The excited solar diurnal, semidiurnal and terdiurnal pressure oscillations are computed and we find that although the largest Fourier component in the heating is the diurnal term , the tide it excites is small in keeping with observation. On the other hand, the excited semidiurnal oscillation is much larger than that due to any previously considered thermal mechanism . It is found that the main semidiurnal and terdiurnal tides generated by the direct absorption of insolation by ozone as calculated in the present work, together with published results regarding water vapour absorption, can adequately account for the observed values at ground level. The seasonal variations of the semi and terdiurnal tides are also calculated and these agree extremely well with observation. Finally, the change of phase of 180° in the vertical distribution of the solar semidiurnal oscillation, which is expected from the analysis of the quiet day magnetic variation, is accounted for in the present work.