Atmospheric wind and temperature profiles inversion using infrasound: An ensemble model context

Area of Science:

• Atmospheric science
• Acoustic physics
• Geophysics

Background:

• Infrasound waves offer insights into atmospheric dynamics.
• Updating atmospheric models with observational data is crucial but computationally challenging.
• Previous inversion methods often require significant reformulation for new constraints.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a flexible inversion methodology for updating atmospheric models using infrasound data.
• To incorporate physical and numerical constraints without reformulating the inversion process.
• To demonstrate the computational tractability of the inversion methodology.

Main Methods:

• Utilized acoustic observations of infrasound waves to update an atmospheric model.
• Employed parallel implementation and tight constraints derived from ERA5 ensemble reanalysis variance.
• Used ensemble averages for initial model temperature and winds.
• Inverted for stratospheric reflection altitude.

Main Results:

• The inversion methodology proved computationally tractable despite an explicit search over the solution space.
• Successfully applied to infrasound data from a Finnish ammunition destruction event.
• Mapped stratospheric reflections within a classical shadow zone distance (178 km).

Conclusions:

• The presented inversion methodology is a computationally feasible approach for integrating infrasound data into atmospheric models.
• The method's flexibility allows for the incorporation of various physical and numerical constraints.
• Demonstrated the utility of infrasound for probing atmospheric conditions, including stratospheric reflections.