Sensitivity of the Upper Mesosphere to the Lorenz Energy Cycle of the Troposphere

Abstract

Abstract The concept of a mechanistic general circulation model that explicitly simulates the gravity wave drag in the extratropical upper mesosphere in a self-consistent fashion is proposed. The methodology consists of 1) a standard spectral dynamical core with high resolution, 2) idealized formulations of radiative and latent heating, and 3) a hydrodynamically consistent turbulent diffusion scheme with the diffusion coefficients based on Smagorinsky’s generalized mixing-length formulation and scaled by the Richardson criterion. The model reproduces various mean and variable features of the wave-driven general circulation from the boundary layer to the mesopause region during January. The dissipation of mesoscale kinetic energy (defined as the frictional heating due to the mesoscale flow) in the extratropical troposphere is found to indicate the tropospheric gravity wave sources relevant for the mesosphere/lower thermosphere. This motivates a sensitivity experiment in which the large-scale differential heating is perturbed such that the Lorenz energy cycle as measured by the globally integrated frictional heating becomes stronger. As a result, both the resolved gravity wave activity and the dissipation of mesoscale kinetic energy in the extratropical troposphere are amplified. These changes have strong remote effects in the summer mesopause region, where the gravity wave drag, the residual meridional wind, and the frictional heating shift to lower altitudes. Furthermore, temperatures decrease below the summer mesopause and increase farther up, which is accompanied by an anomalous eastward wind component around the mesopause.