Energetics in the Arctic Mesospheric Due to Small-scale Gravity Waves

Small-scale gravity waves play a major role in energy transfer throughout the atmosphere and near-space environment, and therefore are essential to include on both weather and climate model studies. However, due to their small structure, they are difficult to implement into these models. Instead, they are often parameterized through an ensemble effect of energy transfer, with the assumption that the energy transported from the source is deposited at the wave breaking level. It is this assumption that is one of the obstacles in the models, as we know from observations that waves are not depositing energy at a single altitude level, but instead deposit energy throughout their propagation as they undergo dispersion. In essence, we currently do not have clear understandings of energy transfer distributions as the waves propagate through the upper atmosphere. The goal of this project through multiple objectives is to help advance our understanding of how energy is transported from the Arctic stratosphere into the upper mesosphere and near-space environment by small atmospheric waves using a suite of instruments situated in Tromsoe, Norway, specifically, the ISEE Na lidar and Na airglow imager. In this presentation, we present the results on the first objective regarding energetics of gravity waves in the MLT region utilizing derived temperature and winds from the Na LiDAR.