Impact of Atmospheric Compressibility and Stokes Drift on the Vertical Transport of Heat and Constituents by Gravity Waves

Abstract

AbstractVertical transport of heat and atmospheric constituents by gravity waves plays a crucial role in shaping the thermal and constituent structure of the middle atmosphere. We show that atmospheric mixing by non‐breaking waves can be described as a diffusion process where the potential temperature (KH) and constituent (KWave) diffusivities depend on the compressibility of the wave fluctuations and the vertical Stokes drift imparted to the atmosphere by the wave spectrum. KH and KWave are typically much larger than the eddy diffusivity (Kzz), arising from the turbulence generated by breaking waves, and can exceed several hundred m2s−1 in regions of strong wave dissipation. We also show that the total diffusion of heat and constituents caused by waves, turbulence, and the thermal motion of molecules, is enhanced in the presence of non‐breaking waves by a factor that is proportional to the variance of the wave‐driven lapse rate fluctuations. Diffusion enhancements of both heat and constituents of 50% or more can be experienced in regions of low atmospheric stability, where the lapse rate fluctuations are large. These important transport effects are not currently included in most global chemistry‐climate models, which typically only consider the eddy diffusion that is induced when the unresolved, but parameterized waves, experience dissipation. We show that the theoretical results compare favorably with observations of the mesopause region at midlatitudes and describe how the theory may be used to more fully account for the unresolved wave transport in global models.