Global observations of 2 day wave coupling to the diurnal tide in a high‐altitude forecast‐assimilation system

Abstract

Abstract We examine wave components in a high‐altitude forecast‐assimilation system that arise from nonlinear interaction between the diurnal tide and the westward traveling quasi 2 day wave. The process yields a westward traveling “sum” wave with zonal wave number 4 and a period of 16 h, and an eastward traveling “difference” wave with zonal wave number 2 and a period of 2 days. While the eastward 2 day wave has been reported in satellite temperatures, the westward 16 h wave lies outside the Nyquist limits of resolution of twice daily local time satellite sampling. Hourly output from a high‐altitude forecast‐assimilation model is used to diagnose the nonlinear quadriad. A steady state primitive equation model forced by tide‐2 day wave advection is used to intepret the nonlinear wave products. The westward 16 h wave maximizes in the midlatitude winter mesosphere and behaves like an inertia‐gravity wave. The nonlinearly generated component of the eastward 2 day wave maximizes at high latitudes in the lower thermosphere, and only weakly penetrates to low latitudes. The 16 h and the eastward 2 day waves are of comparable amplitude and alias to the same apparent frequency when viewed from a satellite perspective.