Multisensor profiling of a concentric gravity wave event propagating from the troposphere to the ionosphere

In this paper, we present near-simultaneous observations of a gravity wave (GW) event in the stratosphere, mesosphere, and ionosphere over the South Central United States and track it from its convective source region in the troposphere to the ionosphere, where it appears as a traveling ionospheric disturbance (TID). On 4 April 2014 concentric GW ring patterns were seen at stratospheric heights in close proximity to a convective storm over North Texas in the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder data on board the NASA Aqua satellite. Concentric GWs of similar orientation and epicenter were also observed in mesospheric nightglow measurements of the Day/Night Band of the Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. Concentric TIDs were seen in total electron content data derived from ground-based GPS receivers distributed throughout the U.S. These new multisensor observations of TIDs and atmospheric GWs can provide a unique perspective on ionosphere-atmosphere coupling.

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