Evidence of gravity wave contribution to vertical shear and mixing in the lower stratosphere

Abstract

Small-scale dynamics, particularly gravity waves (GWs), modify vertical wind shear and can trigger turbulence in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS), thereby influencing the transport of trace species across the tropopause. Although idealized modeling and observational case studies have demonstrated this link, the contribution of small-scale dynamics to turbulence generation remains poorly understood, particularly under real atmospheric conditions. Here, we investigate the relationship between GWs, vertical wind shear, and clear-air turbulence (CAT) in the LMS over the North Atlantic during a baroclinic life cycle. We combine airborne observations with ERA5 reanalysis and high-resolution forecasts from the IFS and ICON models. To isolate the contribution of small-scale dynamics to turbulence generation, we extract the small-scale divergent component of the modeled wind field. From this, we derive momentum flux, perturbation vertical wind shear, and the turbulence indices TI1 and TI2, and compare these quantities with those calculated from the full wind fields. Trace-species mixing is observed within a region of enhanced GW activity over Iceland that is characterized by increased vertical wind shear and turbulence. ERA5 reproduces the spatial and temporal distribution of enhanced shear and turbulence but underestimates shear magnitudes relative to the forecasts while yielding comparable values of TI1 and TI2. These findings extend previous idealized studies from Umbarkar and Kunkel (2025) to real atmospheric conditions and provide further evidence that GW-induced small-scale dynamics contribute to turbulence generation in the LMS. They also demonstrate the potential of ERA5 for long-term investigations of the role of small-scale dynamics in transport and mixing near the tropopause.