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Dewan & Grossbard 2000
Dewan, E.M. and Grossbard, N. (2000). Power spectral artifacts in published balloon data and implications regarding saturated gravity wave theories. Journal of Geophysical Research 105: doi: 10.1029/1999JD901108. issn: 0148-0227.

There are several theories of atmospheric gravity wave power spectral densities (PSDs) which have been published. These, in turn, have inspired numerous experimental tests. The spectra involved are in the class denoted stochastic, red noise spectra. This means that most of the power is at the low-frequency end and obeys a power law falloff in going to higher frequency. The present paper describes how some published experimental spectra are flawed by an artifact of spectral analysis which has not heretofore been recognized in the literature. It involves both an amplitude fluctuation enhancement and a coupling between spectral amplitude and slope, and it can be avoided only by stringent control of spectral leakage. Because of trade-off considerations every data set, depending on its length and signal characteristics, requires a different method of analysis. It is therefore required that PSD analysis programs must be adjusted and tested to fit each situation. For this purpose a simple method is described to simulate data of known general characteristics for test purposes (to avoid the pitfalls). Since the papers by Nastrom et al. <1997> and de la Torre et al. <1997> have the unfortunate artifact in their analyses, their conclusions regarding saturated gravity wave theories should be reexamined. ¿ 2000 American Geophysical Union

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Abstract

Keywords
Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342), Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Waves and tides, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Instruments and techniques
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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