Direct numerical simulation of breaking atmospheric gravity waves

Abstract

We present the results of fully resolved direct numerical simulations of monochromatic gravity waves breaking in the middle atmosphere. The simulations are initialized with optimal perurbations of the gives waves. Given a wavelength of 3 km, the required grid sizes range up to 3.6 billion computational cells, depending on the necessary domain size and the turbulence intensity. Our results provide an insight into the mechanics of gravity wave breaking they will be of great value for the validation of lower order methods for the prediction of wave breaking.