Atmospheric semidiurnal lunar tide climatology simulated by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model

The simulated climatology of the semidiurnal lunar tide in surface pressure and zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) is presented. Prior observations and modeling results demonstrate characteristic seasonal and latitudinal variability of the semidiurnal lunar tide in surface pressure, and the WACCM reproduces these features.

In the MLT, the WACCM simulations reveal a primarily semiannual variation with maxima near December and June solstice. The peak amplitudes in the MLT zonal and meridional winds are similar to 5-10 ms(-1), and occur at mid to high latitudes in the summer hemisphere. We have further compared the WACCM simulation results in the MLT with those from the Global Scale Wave Model (GSWM).