Application of MST radar wind estimation techniques to the study of gravity waves in the lower stratosphere and troposphere

The core of the dissertation focuses on the estimation of atmospheric flow field parameters by using various wind estimation techniques and the application of wind techniques to a study of gravity waves in the troposphere and lower stratosphere from 6 km to 15.6 km.; The first part of the dissertation deals with the comparison of various wind estimation techniques. The imaging Doppler interferometry (IDI) method was the main method of analysis used in this part of the research. The experiments consisted of interlacing two different and independent configurations, and measurements were observed by Doppler and interferometry techniques. The Middle and Upper (MU) radar provides a great capability for rapidly switching between different configurations. The incoherent integration effect on IDI wind estimation is studied and interpreted by a simple computer simulation. The IDI wind without incoherent integration agrees with the spaced antenna drift (SAD) true velocity, whereas the IDI wind with incoherent integration is close to the SAD apparent wind velocity. The IDI technique can also be used to calculate the in-beam incidence angles. The result has good agreement with the angles obtained from the zero lag of the cross correlation function of the spaced antenna/radial interferometry technique.; Once the wind velocities are calculated from various wind techniques, gravity waves dynamics are investigated by calculating the frequency and vertical wavenumber spectra of the horizontal and vertical fluctuation wind velocities. The results are used to test the predictions of two of the theories that have been proposed to explain gravity wave spectra.