J. Geophys. Res., 107 (D23), 8175, doi: 10.1029/2001JD000655, 2002

Geostrophic wind fields in the stratosphere and mesosphere from satellite data

J. Oberheide1,2, G. A. Lehmacher3, D. Offermann1, K. U. Grossmann1, A. H. Manson4, C. E. Meek4, F. J. Schmidlin5, W. Singer6, P. Hoffmann6, and R. A. Vincent7

Abstract

Daily maps of horizontally resolved zonal and meridional geostrophic wind fields in the altitude range 20-90 km were obtained from the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) experiment during November 1994 and August 1997. Results are compared with zonal mean zonal winds from climatological sources, and with assimilated data from standard analyses. Correlative data from ground-based, and balloon- and rocket-borne measurements are used to validate the CRISTA winds. The comparisons show that geostrophic wind fields from high spatial resolution satellite-borne temperature measurements are a good approximation for the winds in the middle atmosphere up to mesopause heights. Therefore, they may be used as input for further modeling efforts particularly in the mesosphere, where no wind data from standard analyses are available.

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1Physics Department, University of Wuppertal, Gaussstr. 20, D-42119 Wuppertal, Germany.

2now at High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder CO., USA.

3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green KY., USA.

4Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.

5Laboratory for Hydrostatic Processes, Observational Science Branch, NASA/GSFC Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island VA., USA.

6Leibniz-Institut für Atmosphärenphysik, Kühlungsborn, Germany.

7Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.