Simultaneous observation of gravity waves at PMC altitude from AIM/CIPS experiment and PANSY radar over Syowa (69°S, 39°E)

Simultaneous observation of gravity waves (GWs) in the polar summer mesosphere over Syowa (69°S, 39°E) by a ground-based radar and satellite instrument are presented. On 21 January 2016, at 2.3 UT, the CIPS instrument on the AIM satellite observed Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) with GW structures over Syowa. The orientation of the wave crests suggests north-west propagation direction. A periodogram analysis indicates GWs with horizontal wavelengths of 105 ± 5 and 60 ± 5 km. Cross-spectral analysis of the PANSY radar horizontal wind components at the same time, location, and altitude indicate two dominant waves with apparent periods of 15 and 9 h, with respective horizontal wavelengths of 100 ± 5 km and 302 ± 130 km. At the PMC altitude of ∼83 km, the mean zonal component of the vertical momentum flux spectra of the observed GWs is westward and the meridional component is northward. The comparable horizontal wavelengths of the 15 h wave observed by PANSY radar and the CIPS instrument, along with the agreement between the direction of vertical flux of horizontal momentum from PANSY, the propagation direction estimated from the cross-spectral analysis, and the orientation of the wave crests from CIPS i.e. north-west propagation direction suggests that the same wave is observed by both instruments. This simultaneous observation of the same wave by CIPS and PANSY radar provide a distinctive view of both the horizontal and vertical extent of a GW in the Antarctic summer mesosphere.