GW-LCYCLE Campaign from November 30 - December 14, 2013

The DLR Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre conducted atmospheric measurements with the DLR Falcon 20 and with radiosondes in Sweden to survey internal gravity waves excited by the flow across the Scandinavian Mountains.
The GW-LCYCLE mission is embedded in the BMBF research project Role of the middle Atmosphere in Climate (ROMIC) and involves partners from different German institutions. Additionally, the mission was support by external project partners listed below. The mission base was the Arena Arctica at the airport of Kiruna, Sweden.

During GW-LCYCLE a unique combination of airborne in-situ and remote-sensing observations of atmospheric wind, temperature, water vapor and other trace gases (e.g. carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide) was employed. Special focus of the campaign were weather situations when mountain-wave induced internal gravity waves propagated from the ground up into the mesosphere. In addition, on those favourable days radiosondes were launched simultaneously from Andoya, Esrange and from Sodankyla to receive wave characteristics in a height range which could not be covered by the airborne observations.

Project partners:

The sun hardly rises above the horizon north of the Arctic Circle at the beginning of December...