Surname: Young
First Name: Leslie A.
Status= other
Institution: Southwest Research Institute
E-mail: layoung@boulder.swri.edu
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Title: 
Uranus: Gravity waves, the momentum budget, 
and adiabatic cooling.

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Authors: 
Leslie A. Young
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Abstract: 
The temperature of the Uranian atmosphere at 20 microbar
varies by 50 K on the timescale of decades.  Between 1983
and 1998, it has decreased at a rate of 3 K/year -- far 
too rapidly to be caused solely by radiative cooling by 
methane and other hydrocarbons.  One possible explanation 
is adiabatic cooling, driven by momentum deposition of 
breaking gravity waves (with associated adiabatic heating 
elsewhere). Gravity waves with vertical wavelengths near 
2.5 km, which have been detected in the Uranian upper 
atmosphere, should be capable of forcing the required winds.

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Discipline Category: Comparative atmospheres