Global Scale Wave Model 2009 (GSWM-09)

GSWM-09 results provide the most recent comprehensive set of GSWM outputs that provide amplitudes and phases (UT of maximum at 0º longitude) of solar diurnal and semidiurnal tidal wind and temperature perturbations in Earth's atmosphere from pole to pole and from the ground to 245 km altitude. Their value lies in the use of realistic observational and empirical model data to specify the tropospheric and stratospheric forcing of the full spectrum of solarsynchronous ("migrating" with the Sun) and solar-asynchronous ("non-migrating") components of the tidal spectrum, along with diurnal mean winds and temperatures. Notably, GSWM-09 does not include tidal sources known to exist in the thermosphere above approximately 120 km altitude. GSWM-09 results are mainly intended 1) as a resource for the global array of ground-based radar and active and passive optical remote-sensing instruments that measure the dynamics of the atmosphere below about 110 km altitude, 2) for forcing the lower boundaries of thermosphere-ionosphere general circulation models, and 3) for the extrapolation of tidal structures to latitudes and heights where data are not available.

GSWM-09 was created as part of the dissertation research of Dr. Xiaoli Zhang in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, in 2009:

Zhang, Xiaoli (2010). Atmospheric Tides Forced by Troposphere Heating: Longitudinal Variability of Upper Atmosphere Consequences, A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/h128ng01b

and subsequently published in the open literature:

Zhang, X., J.M. Forbes, and M.E. Hagan (2010) Longitudinal variation of tides in the MLT region: 1. Tides driven by tropospheric net radiative heating, Journal of Geophysical Research, Space Physics, 115, A06316. doi:10.1029/2009JA014897

Zhang, X. , J.M. Forbes, and M.E. Hagan (2010). Longitudinal variation of tides in the MLT region: 2. Relative effects of solar radiative and latent heating, Journal of Geophysical Research, Space Physics, 115, A06317. doi:10.1029/2009JA014898

GSWM-09 follows on a series of earlier versions of the GSWM (e.g., Hagan and Forbes, 2002, 2003). The above Zhang et al. (2010) print publications are linked from this data repository, and include details about the GSWM, along with extensive references to earlier publications and earlier versions of the model, including Hagan and Forbes (2002, 2003). Also appended here are copies of tutorial-level descriptions of these earlier versions of the GSWM, with the list of references, that were previously archived in the now obsolete National Center for Atmospheric Research High Altitude Observatory (NCAR HAO) GSWM web site.