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5. Conclusions

Gravity waves being a major mesospheric forcing that can greatly impact on the stratospheric circulation, establishing a source parameterization that is based on our dynamical knowledge of their generation mechanisms should help in obtaining realistic simulations of the middle atmosphere. In the MAECHAM4 model, the medium in which parameterized gravity waves are propagating is surely very important in determining the broad characteristics of these waves that reach the middle atmosphere, but this study shows that a gravity wave source spectrum that is related, even though somewhat crudely, to dynamical a mechanism leading to gravity wave emission can actually improve simulations of the middle atmosphere in terms of zonal mean fields. Convective and jet stream gravity wave excitation are mechanisms that would also need to be taken into account in order to get a more complete picture of the impact of modulating the gravity wave emission by relevant dynamical phenomena in middle and upper atmospheric general circulation models.


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