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A numerical study on amplitude characteristics of the terdiurnal tide excited by nonlinear interaction between the diurnal and semidiurnal tides

Earth, Planets and Space volume 59, pages 183–191 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

A fully nonlinear numerical tidal model has been developed with the aim of presenting amplitude features of the terdiurnal tide excited by nonlinear interaction between the diurnal and semidiurnal tides. Since the superposition of the migrating diurnal and semidiurnal tidal solutions from the GSWM-00 (Global Scale Wave Model 2000) is taken as the initial disturbance for this nonlinear model, the diurnal and semidiurnal tides are allowed to nonlinearly interact with each other. The analyses on the simulations show that the migrating terdiurnal tide can be significantly excited by the nonlinear interaction between the diurnal and semidiurnal tides in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region, especially above 90 km, and have pronounced amplitudes (wind speeds over 15 m s−1 and temperature over 10 K) in the lower thermosphere (90–110 km). In addition, its amplitudes vary strongly with season and maximize during equinoctial months at low and middle latitudes, and its zonal wind component is larger than the meridional wind component. Simultaneously, the diurnal and semidiurnal tides exhibit evident variations, indicating that the wave-wave and wave-mean flow interactions are the important cause of the tidal variability. Our calculations also illustrate the remarkable alteration of the background fields induced by the mean flow/tidal interaction, implying this interaction should be comprehensively considered in describing global atmospheric dynamic and thermal structures in the MLT region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Chun Ming Huang, Shao Dong Zhang & Fan Yi

  2. Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Chun Ming Huang, Shao Dong Zhang & Fan Yi

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  1. Chun Ming Huang
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  2. Shao Dong Zhang
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Correspondence to Shao Dong Zhang.

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Huang, C.M., Zhang, S.D. & Yi, F. A numerical study on amplitude characteristics of the terdiurnal tide excited by nonlinear interaction between the diurnal and semidiurnal tides. Earth Planet Sp 59, 183–191 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353094

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353094

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