Map Harvest P 6 Gravity Wave Breaking : 2

One of the primary objectives of MAP was to understand the generation of gravity waves from high complex terrain, and the breakdown of those waves. Several weak to moderate gravity wave events during the MAP field phase were studied with a remarkable fleet of research aircraft equipped with GPS navigation, gust probes, dropsondes and downlooking LIDAR. These data sets have been carefully analyzed and published in the five years since the project. We review these analyses and compare them with advancing theories and models. Airflow blocking, the turbulent boundary layer and low level shear apparently play significant roles in wave generation and breakdown. Keywordsgravity wave, mountain wave, wave breaking, research aircraft, boundary layers,