The Conservation and Dissipation of Energy Associated with Atmospheric Acoustic Gravity Waves.

摘要

In this report the authors consider the relation between the attenuation of acoustic gravity waves in a lossy atmosphere and the corresponding dissipation of the energy associated with the wave induced fluctuations in the atmospheric quantities (e.g. temperature, pressure, density, and velocity). The self consistency between attenuation and energy dissipation is demonstrated for several different types of possible atmospheric energy dissipation processes. This self consistency illustrates the utility of the pseudo energy concept which consists of defining the energy associated with the acoustic gravity waves as a quantity which is both distinguishable from the total energy, and satisfies its own self contained conservation equation. In addition, some experimental evidence is presented which suggests that the gravity waves observed in ionospheric electron content data often correspond to the characteristics of the waves which would, on a theoretical basis, be likely to propagate to ionospheric heights with minimal attenuation.