Spectra of gravity wave density and wind perturbations observed during ALOHA‐90 on the 25 March flight between Maui and Christmas Island

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Abstract
The airborne Na lidar and Christmas Island MF radar were used to measure the spectra of gravity wave density and wind perturbations during ALOHA‐90 on the 25 March mission. Wave activity was especially strong near Christmas Island with measured wind variances between 1000 and almost 1400 (m/s)². The vertical and meridional wave number spectra of horizontal wind perturbations exhibited power law shapes with slopes of −3.17 and −2.22, respectively. The temporal frequency spectrum appeared to be influenced by strong Doppler effects and had a shallow slope near −1. The magnitudes of the spectra were 4.9 × 105 (m/s)²/(cyc/m) at the vertical wave number 2π/(4 km), 8.4 × 106 (m/s)²/(cyc/m) at the meridional wave number 2π/(200 km) and 7 × 105 (m/s)²/(cyc/m) at the temporal frequency 2π/(1 h).