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Dive into the research topics where Sonja Gisinger is active.

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Featured researches published by Sonja Gisinger.


Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society | 2016

The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE): An Airborne and Ground-Based Exploration of Gravity Wave Propagation and Effects from Their Sources throughout the Lower and Middle Atmosphere

David C. Fritts; Ronald B. Smith; Michael J. Taylor; James D. Doyle; Stephen D. Eckermann; Andreas Dörnbrack; Markus Rapp; B. P. Williams; P.-Dominique Pautet; Katrina Bossert; Neal R. Criddle; Carolyn A. Reynolds; P. Alex Reinecke; Michael Uddstrom; Michael J. Revell; Richard Turner; Bernd Kaifler; Johannes Wagner; Tyler Mixa; Christopher G. Kruse; Alison D. Nugent; Campbell D. Watson; Sonja Gisinger; Steven Smith; Ruth S. Lieberman; Brian Laughman; James J. Moore; William O. J. Brown; Julie Haggerty; Alison Rockwell

AbstractThe Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE) was designed to quantify gravity wave (GW) dynamics and effects from orographic and other sources to regions of dissipation at high altitudes. The core DEEPWAVE field phase took place from May through July 2014 using a comprehensive suite of airborne and ground-based instruments providing measurements from Earth’s surface to ∼100 km. Austral winter was chosen to observe deep GW propagation to high altitudes. DEEPWAVE was based on South Island, New Zealand, to provide access to the New Zealand and Tasmanian “hotspots” of GW activity and additional GW sources over the Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea. To observe GWs up to ∼100 km, DEEPWAVE utilized three new instruments built specifically for the National Science Foundation (NSF)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Gulfstream V (GV): a Rayleigh lidar, a sodium resonance lidar, and an advanced mesosphere temperature mapper. These measurements were supplemented by in situ probes, dropson...


Monthly Weather Review | 2016

Combination of Lidar and Model Data for Studying Deep Gravity Wave Propagation

Benedikt Ehard; Peggy Achtert; Andreas Dörnbrack; Sonja Gisinger; Jörg Gumbel; Mikhail Khaplanov; Markus Rapp; Johannes Wagner

The paper presents a feasible method to complement ground-based middle atmospheric Rayleigh lidar temperature observations with numerical simulations in the lower stratosphere and troposphere to study gravity waves. Validated mesoscale numerical simulations are utilized to complement the temperature below 30-km altitude. For this purpose, high-temporal-resolution output of the numerical results was interpolated on the position of the lidar in the lee of the Scandinavian mountain range. Two wintertime cases of orographically induced gravity waves are analyzed. Wave parameters are derived using a wavelet analysis of the combined dataset throughout the entire altitude range from the troposphere to the mesosphere. Although similar in the tropospheric forcings, both cases differ in vertical propagation. The combined dataset reveals stratospheric wave breaking for one case, whereas the mountain waves in the other case could propagate up to about 40-km altitude. The lidar observations reveal an interaction of the vertically propagating gravity waves with the stratopause, leading to a stratopause descent in both cases.


Journal of Geophysical Research | 2017

Horizontal propagation of large‐amplitude mountain waves into the polar night jet

Benedikt Ehard; Bernd Kaifler; Andreas Dörnbrack; Peter Preusse; Stephen D. Eckermann; Martina Bramberger; Sonja Gisinger; Natalie Kaifler; Ben Liley; Johannes Wagner; Markus Rapp

We analyze a large amplitude mountain wave event, which was observed by a ground-based lidar above New Zealand between 31 July and 1 August 2014. Besides the lidar observations, ECMWF data, satellite observations and raytracing simulations are utilized in this study. It is found that the propagation of mountain waves into the middle atmosphere is influenced by two different phenomena at different times during the event. At the beginning of the event, convective instabilities cause wave breaking in the lower stratosphere. During the course of the event the mountain waves propagate to higher altitudes and are refracted towards the polar night jet due to the strong meridional shear of the zonal wind. As the waves propagate out of the observational volume, the ground-based lidar observes no mountain waves in the mesosphere. However, raytracing simulations and satellite observations indicate that the waves reached mesospheric altitudes downstream of New Zealand. These results underline the importance of considering horizontal propagation of gravity waves when analyzing locally confined gravity wave observations.


Monthly Weather Review | 2017

Multilevel Cloud Structures over Svalbard

Andreas Dörnbrack; Sonja Gisinger; Michael C. Pitts; Lamont R. Poole; Marion Maturilli

The presented picture of the month is a superposition of space-borne lidar observations and high-resolution temperature fields of the ECMWF integrated forecast system (IFS). It displays complex tropospheric and stratospheric clouds in the Arctic winter 2015/16. Near the end of December 2015, the unusual northeastward propagation of warm and humid subtropical air masses as far north as 80°N lifted the tropopause by more than 3 km in 24 h and cooled the stratosphere on a large scale. A widespread formation of thick cirrus clouds near the tropopause and of synoptic-scale polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) occurred as the temperature dropped below the thresholds for the existence of cloud particles. Additionally, mountain waves were excited by the strong flow at the western edge of the ridge across Svalbard, leading to the formation of mesoscale ice PSCs. The most recent IFS cycle using a horizontal resolution of 8 km globally reproduces the large-scale and mesoscale flow features and leads to a remarkable agreement with the wave structure revealed by the space-borne observations.


Monthly Weather Review | 2017

Atmospheric Conditions during the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE)

Sonja Gisinger; Andreas Dörnbrack; Vivien Matthias; James D. Doyle; Stephen D. Eckermann; Benedikt Ehard; Lars Hoffmann; Bernd Kaifler; Christopher G. Kruse; Markus Rapp

AbstractThis paper describes the results of a comprehensive analysis of the atmospheric conditions during the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE) campaign in austral winter 2014. Different datasets and diagnostics are combined to characterize the background atmosphere from the troposphere to the upper mesosphere. How weather regimes and the atmospheric state compare to climatological conditions is reported upon and how they relate to the airborne and ground-based gravity wave observations is also explored. Key results of this study are the dominance of tropospheric blocking situations and low-level southwesterly flows over New Zealand during June–August 2014. A varying tropopause inversion layer was found to be connected to varying vertical energy fluxes and is, therefore, an important feature with respect to wave reflection. The subtropical jet was frequently diverted south from its climatological position at 30°S and was most often involved in strong forcing events of mountain waves at t...


Journal of Geophysical Research | 2017

Horizontal propagation of large amplitude mountain waves in the vicinity of the polar night jet

Benedikt Ehard; Stephen D. Eckermann; Johannes Wagner; Markus Rapp; Peter Preusse; Andreas Dörnbrack; Natalie Kaifler; Martina Bramberger; Sonja Gisinger; Bernd Kaifler; Ben Liley

We analyze a large amplitude mountain wave event, which was observed by a ground-based lidar above New Zealand between 31 July and 1 August 2014. Besides the lidar observations, ECMWF data, satellite observations and raytracing simulations are utilized in this study. It is found that the propagation of mountain waves into the middle atmosphere is influenced by two different phenomena at different times during the event. At the beginning of the event, convective instabilities cause wave breaking in the lower stratosphere. During the course of the event the mountain waves propagate to higher altitudes and are refracted towards the polar night jet due to the strong meridional shear of the zonal wind. As the waves propagate out of the observational volume, the ground-based lidar observes no mountain waves in the mesosphere. However, raytracing simulations and satellite observations indicate that the waves reached mesospheric altitudes downstream of New Zealand. These results underline the importance of considering horizontal propagation of gravity waves when analyzing locally confined gravity wave observations.


Monthly Weather Review | 2018

Mountain Wave Propagation under Transient Tropospheric Forcing: A DEEPWAVE Case Study

Tanja Portele; Andreas Dörnbrack; Johannes Wagner; Sonja Gisinger; Benedikt Ehard; Pierre-Dominique Pautet; Markus Rapp

AbstractThe impact of transient tropospheric forcing on the deep vertical mountain-wave propagation is investigated by a unique combination of in situ and remote sensing observations and numerical ...


Journal of Geophysical Research | 2017

Vertical propagation of large amplitude mountain waves in the vicinity of the polar night jet

Benedikt Ehard; Bernd Kaifler; Andreas Dörnbrack; Peter Preusse; Stephen D. Eckermann; Martina Bramberger; Sonja Gisinger; Natalie Kaifler; Ben Liley; Johannes Wagner; Markus Rapp

We analyze a large amplitude mountain wave event, which was observed by a ground-based lidar above New Zealand between 31 July and 1 August 2014. Besides the lidar observations, ECMWF data, satellite observations and raytracing simulations are utilized in this study. It is found that the propagation of mountain waves into the middle atmosphere is influenced by two different phenomena at different times during the event. At the beginning of the event, convective instabilities cause wave breaking in the lower stratosphere. During the course of the event the mountain waves propagate to higher altitudes and are refracted towards the polar night jet due to the strong meridional shear of the zonal wind. As the waves propagate out of the observational volume, the ground-based lidar observes no mountain waves in the mesosphere. However, raytracing simulations and satellite observations indicate that the waves reached mesospheric altitudes downstream of New Zealand. These results underline the importance of considering horizontal propagation of gravity waves when analyzing locally confined gravity wave observations.


Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics | 2017

Observational indications of downward-propagating gravity waves in middle atmosphere lidar data

Natalie Kaifler; Bernd Kaifler; Benedikt Ehard; Sonja Gisinger; Andreas Dörnbrack; Markus Rapp; Rigel Kivi; Alexander Kozlovsky; M. Lester; Ben Liley


Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | 2017

Observed versus simulated mountain waves over Scandinavia – improvement of vertical winds, energy and momentum fluxes by enhanced model resolution?

Johannes Wagner; Andreas Dörnbrack; Markus Rapp; Sonja Gisinger; Benedikt Ehard; Martina Bramberger; Benjamin Witschas; Fernando Chouza; Stephan Rahm; Christian Mallaun; Gerd Baumgarten; P. Hoor

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Stephen D. Eckermann

United States Naval Research Laboratory

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Ben Liley

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

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Peter Preusse

Forschungszentrum Jülich

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