Reconstruction of internal gravity wave and turbulence parameters in the stratosphere using GOMOS scintillation measurements

Exploitation of stellar scintillation allows studying air density irregularities in the stratosphere. In this paper, we develop a methodology for reconstruction of internal gravity wave (IGW) and turbulence parameters using scintillation measurements by the Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Star (GOMOS) fast photometers on board the Envisat satellite. The forward model is based on a two‐component spectral model of air density irregularities: the first component corresponds to the gravity wave spectrum, while the second one describes locally isotropic turbulence resulting from internal gravity wave breaking. The retrieval of parameters of IGW and turbulence spectra is based on the maximum likelihood method. The developed algorithm is tested on simulated and real data, and its accuracy is assessed. It is shown that the measured scintillation spectra are in good agreement with the proposed model and that structure characteristics and inner and outer scales of the anisotropic component can be reconstructed from scintillation spectra. The developed method can provide information about global distribution of parameters of IGW and turbulence spectra in the stratosphere at altitudes from 25 to 50 km.