A MODEL FOR THE RESPONSE OF THE ATOMIC OXYGEN 557.7NM AND THE OH MEINEL AIRGLOW TO ATMOSPHERIC GRAVITY-WAVES IN A REALISTIC ATMOSPHERE

We describe a model for the response of atomic oxygen and hydroxyl air glow to a gravity wave. The airglow models uses a realistic atmospheri c-gravity-wave model, describing the wave velocity and pressure fluctu ations in the presence of a nonisothermal background temperature profi le and background winds. The gravity-wave model is coupled to the OH p hotochemical model of Makhlouf et al. [1995] and to a simple chemical model for the 557.7 nm airglow as described below. It is shown that th e chemistry of the 557.7 nm airglow does not affect the phase of the K rassovsky eta, due to the short chemical lifetime of the O(S-1) and th e O-2(c(1) Sigma(u)(-)) precursor states, whereas for the OH airglow t he chemistry and dynamics couple for wave periods of 10-25 min, and ch emistry does affect the phase of eta. The effect of standing waves and traveling waves on the phase of eta is shown to be different, and thi s behavior can be used to differentiate between freely propagating wav es and ducted waves. These effects are illustrated by applying the mod el to examples of Airborne Lidar and Observations of Hawaiian Airglow (ALOHA-93) campaign data. A combination of model prediction and ground -based measurements from the ALOHA 93 campaign are used to estimate th e vertical eddy diffusivity D-zz due to nonlinear gravity waves follow ing the formulation of Weinstock [1976]. The estimated values of D-zz vary between 1.0x10(2) and 5.0x10(3) m(2)/s, which is in the range of measured and inferred values.