Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Physics

Supervisor

Wayne K. Hocking

Abstract

The spectral analysis of data from three VHF radars (one high-Arctic and two mid-latitudes) show support for the universal spectrum theory for gravity waves in the lower atmosphere (altitudes of 2.0-11.0 km), provided that the impact of the off-vertical beam and noise are taken into consideration. This analysis also reveals that local gravity wave generation is of secondary importance, but still significant for determining the spectra.

A total of eight spectral methods were considered and scrutinized for the purposes of determining gravity wave spectra from VHF radar data. A definition for the “best” method was given and examined. The method selected as the “best” for the analysis presented was a date-compensated discrete Fourier transform with a Hamming window.

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