Morphology-based retrieval of local wave parameters and phase shifts in satellite-observed atmospheric disturbances

Abstract

Currently available methods for processing atmospheric wave disturbances are often based on integral wavelet transform techniques, which efficiently estimate spectral data but are fundamentally limited by the uncertainty principle. To address this limitation, this work proposes a novel morphological approach based on partitioning spatial disturbance profiles into separate, well-defined wave segments. By focusing exclusively on the local waveform morphology of a central half-wave and its two adjacent out-of-phase counterparts, and taking the modified Morlet wavelet as a primary example of a model wave packet, we successfully reconstruct the complete set of local wave parameters directly from the amplitudes and positions of these three dominant half-waves. Consequently, the theory demonstrates good agreement with observations, confirming the high accuracy of the proposed waveform morphology approach in reconstructing the localized structure of atmospheric disturbances. When applied to evaluating the phase shift between different wave field components, the method reveals that this shift is a weighted combination of the classical monochromatic phase difference and a morphological one determined by the internal symmetry of the underlying wave packets. Although the classical factor yields the dominant contribution, the symmetry-related factor provides a moderate correction to it. The applicability and accuracy of the approach are verified using observational data gathered over several orbits of the low-Earth-orbit satellite Dynamic Explorer 2 as it passed over Earth's polar caps. The obtained results confirm that the observed disturbances correspond to medium-scale acoustic-gravity waves propagating at a small angle to the horizontal plane, demonstrating the broader methodological potential of the proposed technique for analyzing a wide range of wave phenomena.