Direct and indirect effects of atmospheric gravity waves on the climate system

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The effects of gravity waves (GW) in the earth climate are categorized into two: direct effects through their ability to deposit momentum to drive the general circulation, and indirect effects on the ozone chemistry through their temperature fluctuations to modulate polar stratospheric cloud amounts. Using data from a high-resolution general circulation model and a chemistry climate model, it was shown that GW forcing is distributed much wider than the source region by significant refraction and advection by the mean flow, that GW forcing is critical to the dissipation phase of the sudden stratospheric warming, and that the main forcing to drive the stratospheric circulation in the summer hemisphere is attributable to GW. By analyzing satellite data, GW indirect effect on the ozone chemistry is quantified. Moreover, we succeeded in formulation of a unified theory of the 3-d circulation driven by Rossby waves and GW that is inevitable for future studies using high-resolution data.