Waves in the upper atmosphere, triggered by winds that hit the mountainous northwest coast of Norway

Northern Norway is a hotspot of mesoscale atmospheric dynamics. Measurements of mesoscale dynamics in the mesosphere and lower
thermosphere were obtained during the scientific rocket campaign VortEx in 2023. Rocket soundings are essential for improving the
modeling of the middle atmosphere, while spatially and temporally complete model data are crucial for interpreting the observations.
Using the Levante supercomputer at DKRZ, the Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) simulated the period of the campaign
with the upper atmosphere version of the Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic Model (ICON).

The animation shows data up to a height of 40 km from a simulation with a horizontal resolution of 1.25 km in an area spanning
66-72°N and 10-30°E. Strong waves in combination with wind shear and turbulence are visible in the temperature anomalies (blue and
red colors). These waves are generated by the steep coastal terrain. Moving pathline segments of particles seeded at a height of
about 1.1 km indicate the wind direction near the ground. The pathline segments are colored according to the respective wind strengths.

The visualization was carried out with Paraview and was rendered using ray tracing (pathtracer with shadows) in order to improve the
perception of the height at which the line elements move.

Simulation: Claudia Stephan (IAP)
https://www.iap-kborn.de/en/home/

Visualization: Michael Böttinger (DKRZ)
https://www.dkrz.de/en