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Gravity Waves?

Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 10:26 pm
by JonathanBelles
Image

This is happening right now in Tampa Bay. The attached movie is a radar base radial velocity loop with 'wind' heading in toward the radar (south of Tampa) in lines. There are currently eight lines as viewed on GR, and the best explanation I can come up with is gravity waves. There are no thunderstorms on the east side of the state to produce outflow boundaries, and the sea breeze would not come in a set of lines.

Are these indeed gravity waves or something else?

Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 11:36 pm
by psyclone
I have no idea what that is but it is very interesting. I have always associated gravity waves with a perturbed atmosphere (ie, big noreasters or higher end severe weather events). the sky is totally clear here and the wind has been and remains calm.

Re: Gravity Waves?

Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:17 am
by gigabite
Atmospheric tides: Atmospheric tides are negligible at ground level and aviation altitudes, masked by weather's much more important effects. Atmospheric tides are both gravitational and thermal in origin and are the dominant dynamics from about 80–120 kilometres (50–75 mi) above which the molecular density becomes too low to support fluid behavior. from: Tides Wikipedia


High tide was at 6:08 pm EDT on Friday May 11, 2012. I have always related Newtonian Type of gravity wave to dimple in a cloud mass as it appears on the visible satellite imagery opposed to an Anvil Cloud type of gravity wave. Maybe it is a ripple from a wind boundary layer.