Gravity wave climatology in the middle atmosphere

Characterization of gravity waves present in the middle atmosphere can be derived from the data available from lidar and radar systems, and optical instruments. By extracting individual wave events, estimates of the wave parameters - amplitude, horizontal and vertical wavelength, phase, and frequency - as well as the temperature and momentum flux can be obtained, From a collection of lidar data from several different sites including the Starfire Optical Range (SOR), Maui, HI, and Urbana, IL as well as data from concurrent airglow images individual gravity wave events will be isolated and the interesting parameters catalogued according to season, Several of the more interesting data sets will be used as case studies to highlight the data and the unique processing techniques used to generate the catalogued summary. The statistics garnered from the catalogued data can be used to formulate a climatology of the presence of gravity waves and their long-term modifications to the mean wind and temperature.