Middle Atmosphere Response to ENSO Events in Northern Hemisphere Winter by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunhui Lu ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Chuanxi Liu
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianyuan Wang ◽  
Wen Yi ◽  
Jianfei Wu ◽  
Tingdi Chen ◽  
Xianghui Xue ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a study of migrating and non-migrating tidal winds observed simultaneously by three meteor radars situated in the southern equatorial region. The radars are located at Cariri (7.4° S, 36.5° W), Brazil, Kototabang (0.2° S, 100.3° E), Indonesia and Darwin (12.3° S, 130.8° E), Australia. Harmonic analysis was used to obtain amplitudes and phases for diurnal and semidiurnal solar migrating and non-migrating tides between 80 and 100 km altitude during the period 2005 to 2008. They include the important tidal components of diurnal westward-propagating zonal wavenumber 1 (DW1), diurnal eastward-propagating zonal wavenumber 3 (DE3), semidiurnal westward-propagating zonal wavenumber 2 (SW2), and semidiurnal eastward-propagating zonal wavenumber 2 (SE2). In addition, we also present a climatology of these wind tides and analyze the reliability of the fitting through the reference to Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) winds. The analysis suggests that the migrating tides could be well fitted by the three different radars, but the non-migrating tides might be overestimated. The results based on observations were also compared with the Climatological Tidal Model of the Thermosphere (CTMT). In general, climatic features between observations and model migrating tides were satisfactory in both wind components. However, the features of the DW1, DE3 and SW2 amplitudes in both wind components were slightly different from the results of the CTMT models. This result is probably because tides could be enhanced by the 2006 northern hemisphere stratospheric sudden warming (NH-SSW) event.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 559-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. G. Hoffmann ◽  
D. E. Kinnison ◽  
R. R. Garcia ◽  
M. Palm ◽  
J. Notholt ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study compares CO in the Arctic stratosphere and mesosphere measured by ground-based microwave radiometry with simulations made with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model driven with specified dynamical fields (SD-WACCM4) for the Arctic winters 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. CO is a tracer for polar winter middle atmosphere dynamics, hence the representation of polar dynamics in the model is examined indirectly. Measurements were taken with the Kiruna Microwave Radiometer (KIMRA). The instrument, which is located in Kiruna, Northern Sweden (67.8° N, 20.4° E), provides CO profiles between 40 and 80 km altitude. The present comparison, which is one of the first between SD-WACCM4 and measurements, is performed on the smallest space and time scales currently simulated by the model; the global model is evaluated daily at the particular model grid-point closest to Kiruna. As a guide to what can generally be expected from such a comparison, the same analysis is repeated for observations of CO from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), a microwave radiometer onboard NASA's Aura satellite, which has global coverage. First, time-mean profiles of CO are compared, revealing that the profile shape of KIMRA deviates from SD-WACCM4 and MLS, especially in the upper mesosphere. SD-WACCM4 and MLS are mostly consistent throughout the range of altitude considered; however, SD-WACCM4 shows slightly lower values above 60 km and this discrepancy increases with altitude. Second, the time evolution is compared for the complete time series, as well as for the slowly and rapidly evolving parts alone. Overall, the agreement among the datasets is very good and the model is almost as consistent with the measurements as the measurements are with each other. Mutual correlation coefficients of the slowly varying part of the CO time series are ≥0.9 over a wide altitude range. This demonstrates that the polar winter middle atmosphere dynamics is very well represented in SD-WACCM4 and that the relaxation to analyzed meteorological fields below 50 km constrains the behavior of the simulation sufficiently, even at higher altitudes, such that the simulation above 50 km is close to the measurements. However, above 50 km, the model-measurement correlation for the rapidly varying part of the CO time series is lower (0.3) than the measurement-measurement correlation (0.6). This is attributed to the fact that the gravity wave parametrization in WACCM is based on a generic gravity wave spectrum and cannot be expected to capture the instantaneous behavior of the actual gravity wave field present in the atmosphere.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 1031-1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Kren ◽  
D. R. Marsh ◽  
A. K. Smith ◽  
P. Pilewskie

Abstract The response of the Northern Hemisphere winter stratosphere to the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is examined using the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model. A 200-yr preindustrial control simulation that includes fully interactive chemistry, ocean and sea ice, constant solar forcing, and greenhouse gases fixed to 1850 levels is analyzed. Based on principal component analysis, the PDO spatial pattern, frequency, and amplitude agree well with the observed PDO over the period 1900–2014. Consistent with previous studies, the positive phase of the PDO is marked by a strengthened Aleutian low and a wave train of geopotential height anomalies reminiscent of the Pacific–North American pattern in the troposphere. In addition to a tropospheric signal, a zonal-mean warming of about 2 K in the northern polar stratosphere and a zonal-mean zonal wind decrease of about 4 m s−1 in the PDO positive phase are found. When compositing PDO positive or negative winters during neutral El Niño years, the magnitude is reduced and depicts an early winter forcing of the stratosphere compared to a late winter response from El Niño. Contamination between PDO and ENSO signals is also discussed. Stratospheric sudden warmings occur 63% of the time in the PDO positive phase compared to 40% in the negative phase. Although this sudden warming frequency is not statistically significant, it is quantitatively consistent with NCEP–NCAR reanalysis data and recent observational evidence linking the PDO positive phase to weak stratospheric vortex events.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (20) ◽  
pp. 8317-8333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengyun Yang ◽  
Tao Li ◽  
Anne K. Smith ◽  
Xiankang Dou

Abstract Using the specified-dynamics (SD) Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM), the effects of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) on the midwinter stratosphere and mesosphere in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) are investigated. The most significant responses of the SH polar cap temperature to the MJO are found about 30 days after MJO phase 1 (P1) and about 10 days after MJO phase 5 (P5) in both the ERA-Interim data and the SD-WACCM simulation. The 200- and 500-hPa geopotential height anomalies in the SH reveal that wave trains emanate from the Indian and Pacific Oceans when the MJO convection is enhanced in the eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. As a result, the upward propagation and dissipation of planetary waves (PWs) in the middle and high latitudes of the SH stratosphere is significantly enhanced, the Brewer–Dobson (BD) circulation in the SH stratosphere strengthens, and temperatures in the SH polar stratosphere increase. Wavenumber 1 in the stratosphere is the dominant component of the PW perturbation induced by the MJO convection. In the SH mesosphere, the MJO leads to enhancement of the dissipation and breaking of gravity waves (GWs) propagating as a result of wind-filtering change in the SH extratropics and causes anomalous downwelling in the middle and high latitudes of the mesosphere. The circulation thus changes significantly, resulting in anomalous cooling in the mesosphere in response to MJO P1 and P5 at lags of 10 and 30 days, respectively.


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