atmosphere Article Spectra of Acoustic-Gravity Waves in the Atmosphere with a Quasi-Isothermal Upper Layer Sergey P. Kshevetskii 1,2,* , Yuliya A. Kurdyaeva 2,3 and Nikolai M. Gavrilov 2 1 Theoretical Physics Department, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 236041 Kaliningrad, Russia 2 Department of Atmospheric Physics, Saint Petersburg State University, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russia;
[email protected] (Y.A.K.);
[email protected] (N.M.G.) 3 Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation, Kaliningrad Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 236016 Kaliningrad, Russia * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: In this paper, we study, in theoretical terms, the structure of the spectrum of acoustic-gravity waves (AGWs) in the nonisothermal atmosphere having asymptotically constant temperature at high altitudes. A mathematical problem of wave propagation from arbitrary initial perturbations in the half-infinite nonisothermal atmosphere is formulated and analyzed for a system of linearized hydrodynamic equations for small-amplitude waves. Besides initial and lower boundary conditions at the ground, wave energy conservation requirements are applied. In this paper, we show that this mathematical problem belongs to the class of wave problems having self-adjoint evolution operators, which ensures the correctness and existence of solutions for a wide range of atmospheric temperature stratifications. A general solution of the problem can be built in the form of basic eigenfunction expansions of the evolution operator. The paper shows that wave frequencies considered as eigenval- Citation: Kshevetskii, S.P.; ues of the self-adjoint evolution operator are real and form two global branches corresponding to Kurdyaeva, Y.A.; Gavrilov, N.M.