ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Space Physics
This article is part of the Research TopicLarge Long-Lived Vertical Wind Oscillations in the Mesosphere and Thermosphere RegionsView all 7 articles
Seasonal Vertical Coupling of Gravity Waves over the Southern Andes from 3-D Satellite and High-Resolution Lidar Observations
Provisionally accepted
- 1Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, United States
- 2GATS Inc, Newport News, United States
- 3Forschungszentrum Julich Julich Supercomputing Centre, Jülich, Germany
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In the mesosphere, vertical wind velocities can exceed tens of m/s, driven by gravity wave (GW) processes such as wave breaking and the generation of secondary GWs. These dynamic events play a crucial role in redistributing energy and momentum across atmospheric layers. In this study, we investigate the GW dynamics over the Southern Andes—a prominent hotspot for GW activity—using a combination of satellite and ground-based observations. Specifically, we analyze nearly two decades of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) data along with about 5 years of sodium (Na) lidar observations from the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO). Our analysis reveals a clear seasonal co-variation between lower-stratospheric GW activity and mesospheric perturbations, with both data sets exhibiting pronounced austral-winter enhancements.The mesospheric Na-lidar variance also exhibits secondary maxima during late summer and spring; a simple vertical-wavenumber spectral analysis suggests these shoulder enhancements arise from modest broadband increases in short-vertical-wavelength power. This variability is consistent with vertical coupling mediated by seasonally varying background winds and mesospheric wave dissipation.
Keywords: Andes, Gravity wave, mesosphere, stratosphere, Vertical coupling
Received: 20 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Dong, Liu, Hoffmann, Fritts, Yang and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenjun Dong
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