Scientists Watch Mysterious, Invisible Gravity Waves in Earth's Atmosphere (VIDEO)

Scientists may have imaged gravity waves through our planet's atmosphere for the first time ever. Researchers have found a way to "watch" the propagation of gravity waves toward space.

Gravity waves are born when air masses are pushed up or down; for example, this can occur during a thunderstorm or when wind is forced up and over a mountain range. In the lower atmosphere, though, the impacts usually remain regional. By the time the waves reach the upper atmosphere, though, they can dominate atmospheric processes on a much larger scale and can sometimes threaten the reliability of Earth-based communication systems.

"We've never seen a global picture of gravity waves in the upper atmosphere before, either from observations or simulations, even though we have suspected their importance up there," said Hanli Liu, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This is the first time we have been able to capture these waves with a computer model of the whole atmosphere."

The researchers studied the gravity waves by "catching" them at the beginning. The scientists used a model in order to show how gravity waves, such as those created by a tropical cyclone east of Australia, grew as they travelled upwards. What starts out as a localized phenomenon soon extends across the entire Pacific Region at 100 km above Earth's surface.

"For the middle and lower atmosphere, if you miss the gravity wave, you're not missing too much," said Liu. "But it's a different story in the upper atmosphere."

Disturbances in the upper atmosphere can endanger satellites and skew GPS readings. They often are thought of as originating from the sun. However, the upper reaches of the atmosphere is also influences by processes on Earth.

"When gravity waves propagate to the bottom side of the ionosphere, they can kick off instabilities," said Liu. "If you want to have a better understanding of space weather-the ionosphere-you need this kind of modelling capability."

The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Want to see the waves for yourself? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.

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