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Stanford scientists track tiny atmospheric ripples using data from internet-beaming balloons:
Giant balloons launched into the stratosphere to beam internet service to Earth have helped scientists measure tiny ripples in our upper atmosphere, uncovering patterns that could improve weather forecasts and climate models.
The ripples, known as gravity waves or buoyancy waves, emerge when blobs of air are forced upward and then pulled down by gravity. Imagine a parcel of air that rushes over mountains, plunges toward cool valleys, shuttles across land and sea and ricochets off growing storms, bobbing up and down between layers of stable atmosphere in a great tug of war between buoyancy and gravity. A single wave can travel for thousands of miles, carrying momentum and heat along the way.
[...] Published Aug. 30 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, the new research draws on superpressure balloon data from the company Loon LLC, which designed the balloons to provide internet access to areas underserved by cell towers or fiber-optic cables. Spun out of Google parent company Alphabet in 2018, Loon has sent thousands of sensor-laden balloons sailing 12 miles up in the stratosphere – well above the altitude of commercial planes and most clouds – for 100 days or more at a stretch.
[...] The Loon data proved particularly valuable for calculating high-frequency gravity waves, which can rise and fall hundreds of times in a day, over distances ranging from a few hundred feet to hundreds of miles. “They’re tiny and they change on timescales of minutes. But in an integrated sense, they affect, for instance, the momentum budget of the jet stream, which is this massive planetary scale thing that interacts with storms and plays an important role in setting their course,” Sheshadri said.
Journal Reference:
Erik A. Lindgren, Aditi Sheshadri, Aurélien Podglajen, et al. Seasonal and Latitudinal Variability of the Gravity Wave Spectrum in the Lower Stratosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (DOI: 10.1029/2020JD032850)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @04:13AM (7 children)
The ripples, known as gravity waves or buoyancy waves,
I think we need a definition for "gravity wave" here. Are these quantum gravity waves, or bog standard gravity waves, or something new and very special? Maybe antigravity waves figure into all of this? Is it possible that there is just some antimatter causing this? Maybe even black matter?
Somehow, balloons floating and bobbing in the atmosphere is tracking gravity waves? Why have buoys floating in the water never indicated gravity wave? We might expect that submarines and underwater divers should have detected this in the past.
Maybe they should have stuck with the term "atmospheric ripples", while working to determine what causes those ripples.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @04:19AM
Pretty sure they are talking about transverse waves in the atmosphere (similar to waves on the top of the sea.) They wouldn't happen without gravity to hold the air down on the planet but that is about the limit of their connection to actual gravity waves.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stormwyrm on Sunday September 06 2020, @05:06AM (4 children)
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 06 2020, @05:27AM (3 children)
Because it's undescriptive. There's more ways than gravity waves to radiate gravitational energy.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday September 06 2020, @06:22AM
Um, no? Not?
Are you drunk, khallow, or just your normal stupid? How else would gravity waves propagate outside of gravitational energy? Do you think they would use emojis? Or perhaps electrical energy from the Electrical Universe? Maybe kinetic energy, from the friction of your hand, . . . never mind. No, khallow, you once again have interjected into a discussion that is massively over your head. You might as well have taken on Gaaaark over Dark Matter. It would have made as much sense.
So, my dear an fluffy, and inflatable khallow, listen up: undescriptive is just a way of saying you do not understand. We all get that. Nothing to be embarrassed about, unless you keep injecting yourself into discussions well beyond your level of comprehension.
So about those dead American soldiers, from an Austrian School point of view, what was in it for them? Trump wants to know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @08:16AM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 06 2020, @12:22PM
Further, some models of gravity at the quantum level have a second gravitational field, the gravitino [wikipedia.org]. So there could be a very complex structure to gravitational waves at the quantum level which would be wholly missed by labeling it merely "radiation".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @08:04AM
Gravity waves are not the same as gravitational waves. There is already a correct explanation in this thread from stormwyrm but I'll offer one as well.
Let's take a parcel of air. Imagine a balloon with 1 kg of air inside of it. In parcel theory, the air inside the parcel doesn't mix with its surroundings. This assumption is imperfect but it's a decent approximation of the atmosphere. Let's forget about moisture. We'll assume that the temperature in the atmosphere cools at a rate of 6 K/km, which is a reasonable estimation of the real atmosphere. Our parcel obeys the first law of thermodynamics so the air inside cools or warms at a rate of 9.8 K/km when the parcel ascends or descends, respectively. We'll ignore the effect of friction for this example, though it is a factor in the real atmosphere.
Initially, our parcel is the same temperature as its surroundings. Let's say it's mechanically lifted up 1 km. The air inside is 6 K colder at this level, but the parcel is 9.8 K colder than originally, or 3.8 K colder than its surroundings. The negatively buoyant parcel experiences a downward acceleration, acquiring momentum as it descends. When the parcel reaches its original level, it's back to the same temperature as its surroundings, but it has downward momentum so it overshoots its original level. Because our model is frictionless, the parcel becomes warmer than its surroundings and becomes positively buoyant, generating an upward acceleration. Eventually the parcel reaches a level 1 km below its original level, where it is 9.8 K warmer, but the surroundings are only 6 K warmer than at the original level. The parcel is 3.8 K warmer than its surroundings. It experiences upward acceleration, ascending to its original level, which it then overshoots due to the momentum it acquired. And the process repeats with the parcel oscillating about its original level.
These waves are oscillations in the atmosphere where gravity is the restoring force. My simplifying assumptions of no friction or mixing prevented damping of the gravity waves, but even with those processes, gravity waves still have a significant effect on weather and climate.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @06:14AM (1 child)
Nutherguy sucks. His submissions suck. His emissions suck, and are bad for the environment. Boo, Runaway1956! Boo to you and your IRC sockpuppet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @01:00PM
Ari has submission envy, it seems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2020, @10:45PM
Not just scientists, "Stanford scientists". They're specially bred in incubators to shit facts. Earth human, I see ripples your soft, puny atmosphere. At Stanford, the atmosphere is like super you know? VC and winners, it's great yah?