Identifying Orographic Gravity Waves in 3D Observations via Backward Ray Tracing

Abstract. Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) generated by orography, commonly referred to as mountain waves (MWs), play a key role in driving atmospheric circulation and in modulating phenomena such as sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs). Their contribution, however, is difficult to disentangle from the full spectrum of observed or simulated GWs. Here, we present a methodology to isolate the MW component of GW observations by combining simulated infrared limb imager measurements with backward ray tracing. This approach enables a systematic separation of GW momentum flux (GWMF) carried by MWs from the total observed signal.

As a case study, we analyze the 2018/19 Northern Hemisphere New Year SSW period, presenting global distributions and time series of GWMF partitioned into orographic and residual components. The ensemble of backward ray trajectories shows a strong correspondence between inferred MW sources and surface topography, supporting the robustness of the method. On average, the identified MWs account for only a minor fraction of the observed GWMF, but they can dominate episodically, including prior to the onset of the SSW.

These results highlight the potential of combining satellite observations with ray tracing to achieve source attribution of GWs. The method's effectiveness depends on the accuracy of retrieved GW parameters, and we therefore include a sensitivity analysis of parameter uncertainties in the appendix.