scholarly journals A Simple Model of Stratospheric Dynamics Including Solar Variability

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1593-1600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Ruzmaikin ◽  
John Lawrence ◽  
Cristina Cadavid

Abstract A simple dynamic model, truncated from the stratospheric wave–zonal flow interaction Holton and Mass model, is introduced and studied. This model consists of three ordinary differential equations controlled by two parameters: the initial amplitude of planetary waves and the vertical gradient of the zonal wind. The changes associated with seasonal variations and with the solar variability are introduced as periodic modulations of the zonal wind gradient. The major climatic response to these changes is seen through modulation of the number of cold and warm winters.

2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-370
Author(s):  
I. A. Pisnichenko

Abstract. In this paper we investigate the stability of zonal flow in a baroclinic atmosphere with respect to finite-amplitude planetary-scale disturbances by applying Arnold's method. Specifically, we examine the sign of the second variation of a conserved functional for the case of a polytropic atmosphere (i.e. one with a linear lapse rate) and with a linear profile of zonal wind. Sufficient stability conditions for an infinite atmosphere (i.e. with a temperature lapse rate equal to zero) are satisfied only for an atmosphere in solid body rotation. For a polytropic atmosphere of finite extent (a lapse rate is not equal zero) the sufficient conditions of stability can be satisfied if a lid is placed below min (Zmax, polytropic atmospheric height). The dependence of height Zmax on values of the vertical gradient of the zonal wind and the zonal temperature distribution is calculated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-51
Author(s):  
Yonatan Givon ◽  
Chaim I. Garfinkel ◽  
Ian White

AbstractAn intermediate complexity General Circulation Model is used to investigate the transient response of the NH winter stratosphere to modulated ultraviolet (UV) radiation by imposing a step-wise, deliberately exaggerated UV perturbation and analyzing the lagged response. Enhanced UV radiation is accompanied by an immediate warming of the tropical upper stratosphere. The warming then spreads into the winter subtropics due to an accelerated Brewer Dobson Circulation in the tropical upper stratosphere. The poleward meridional velocity in the subtropics leads to an increase in zonal wind in midlatitudes between 20N and 50N due to Coriolis torque. The increase in mid-latitude zonal wind is accompanied by a dipole in Eliassen-Palm flux convergence, with decreased convergence near the winter pole and increased convergence in mid-latitudes (where winds are strengthening due to the Coriolis torque); this dipole subsequently extends the anomalous westerlies to subpolar latitudes within the first ten days. The initial radiatively-driven acceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation due to enhanced shortwave absorption is replaced in the subpolar winter stratosphere by a wave-driven deceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, and after a month the wave-driven deceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation encompasses most of the winter stratosphere. Approximately a month after UV is first modified, a significant poleward jet shift is evident in the troposphere. The results of this study may have implications for the observed stratospheric and tropospheric responses to solar variability associated with the 27-day solar rotation period, and also to solar variability on longer timescales.


2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Ruzmaikin ◽  
John K. Lawrence ◽  
Ana Cristina Cadavid

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Schneidereit ◽  
Hauke Schmidt ◽  
Claudia Stephan

<p>Several current general atmospheric circulation models provide sufficiently high resolutions to resolve important parts of the internal gravity wave spectrum allowing for numerical experiments without GW drag parameterizations. GWs start to be well resolved from horizontal wavelengths of about 7 times the horizontal grid spacing. How much does the resolved wave spectrum and its forcing on the mean circulation depend on the vertical resolution?</p><p>−1,The middle atmosphere summer hemisphere provides a suitable background to investigate this question. The mean stratospheric and mesospheric circulation is characterised by prevailing easterlies which prevent planetary wave propagation upwards and represents a mean state driven by IGWs. The sensitivity of the forcing by IGWs is analysed on the basis of the Eliassen-Palm (EP) flux divergence, which describes the forcing on the circulation by resolved eddies.<br>Model simulations are performed using the upper atmosphere version of the ICON (ICOsahedral Nonhydrostatic) general circulation model, UA-ICON (Borchert et al. 2019, GMD). The simulations start in October and run for an extended austral summer season until March with a horizontal grid spacing of roughly 20 km. The top of the model atmosphere is located at 150 km. Three different model configurations are used with 90, 180, and 360 vertical model layers. The mean vertical grid spacing ranges from roughly 1300 m (90 layers) to 320 m (360 layers) at stratospheric levels, and from roughly 2300 m to 500 m at mesospheric levels. Gravity wave drag parameterizations (orographic and non-orographic) are turned off. The resolved forcing on the mean state due to the EP flux divergence is decomposed into contributions of different scales with respect to horizontal wave numbers. For contributions of IGWs wave numbers above 20 are considered.</p><p>The stratospheric and mesospheric easterlies appear stronger in the lower resolution from October to the end of the austral summer season. Westerlies occur above the mesopause. This strong vertical gradient in the zonal mean zonal wind amplifies in the lower resolution. At the beginning of the simulation period, differences between the mean states are weak, of the order of 5 ms<sup>−1</sup> , and strengthen during the summer season. The forcing due to internal GWs appears stronger in the lower resolution at higher altitudes and amplifies in the region of the strong vertical gradient of the zonal mean zonal wind. Furthermore, wave spectra are discussed. In accordance with previous studies, an increased vertical resolution results in a reduction of the IGW forcing close to strong zonal mean zonal wind gradients in the upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 2582-2600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Birner

Abstract The effect of large-scale dynamics as represented by the residual mean meridional circulation in the transformed Eulerian sense, in particular its stratospheric part, on lower stratospheric static stability and tropopause structure is studied using a comprehensive chemistry–climate model (CCM), reanalysis data, and simple idealized modeling. Dynamical forcing of static stability as associated with the vertical structure of the residual circulation results in a dominant dipole forcing structure with negative static stability forcing just below the tropopause and positive static stability forcing just above the tropopause. This dipole forcing structure effectively sharpens the tropopause, especially during winter. Furthermore, the strong positive lowermost stratospheric static stability forcing causes a layer of strongly enhanced static stability just above the extratropical tropopause—a tropopause inversion layer (TIL)—especially in the winter midlatitudes. The strong positive static stability forcing is shown to be mainly due to the strong vertical gradient of the vertical residual velocity found just above the tropopause in the winter midlatitudes. Stratospheric radiative equilibrium (SRE) solutions are obtained using offline radiative transfer calculations for a given tropospheric climate as simulated by the CCM. The resulting tropopause height in SRE is reduced by several kilometers in the tropics but is increased by 1–2 km in the extratropics, strongly reducing the equator-to-pole contrast in tropopause height. Moreover, the TIL in winter midlatitudes disappears in the SRE solution in contrast to the polar summer TIL, which stays intact. When the SRE solution is modified to include the effect of stratospheric dynamics as represented by the stratospheric residual circulation, the TIL in winter midlatitudes is recovered, suggesting that the static stability forcing associated with the stratospheric residual circulation represents the main cause for the TIL in the winter midlatitudes whereas radiation seems dominant in causing the polar summer TIL.


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 2940-2958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Xiu-Qun Yang ◽  
Yu Nie ◽  
Gang Chen

Abstract Eddy–zonal flow interactions in the annular modes are investigated in this study using a modified beta-plane multilayer quasigeostrophic (QG) channel model. This study shows the different response of high- and low-phase-speed (frequency) eddies to the zonal wind anomalies and suggests a baroclinic mechanism through which the two eddies work symbiotically maintaining the positive eddy feedback in the annular modes. Analysis also indicates that the different roles played by these two eddies in the annular modes are related to the differences in their critical line distributions. Eddies with higher phase speeds experience a low-level critical layer at the center of the jet. They drive the zonal wind anomalies associated with the annular mode but weaken the baroclinicity of the jet in the process. Lower-phase-speed eddies encounter low-level critical lines on the jet flanks. While their momentum fluxes are not as important for the jet shift, they play an important role by restoring the lower-level baroclinicity at the jet center, creating a positive feedback loop with the fast eddies that extends the persistence of the jet shift. The importance of the lower-level baroclinicity restoration by the low-phase-speed eddies in the annular modes is further demonstrated in sensitivity runs, in which surface friction on eddies is increased to selectively damp the low-phase-speed eddies. For simulations in which the low-phase-speed eddies become inactive, the leading mode of the zonal wind variability shifts from the position fluctuation to a pulsing of the jet intensity. Further studies indicate that the response of the lower-level baroclinicity to the zonal wind anomalies caused by the low-phase-speed eddies can be crucial in maintaining the annular mode–like variations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
pp. 3507-3519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Sheshadri ◽  
R. Alan Plumb ◽  
Erik A. Lindgren ◽  
Daniela I. V. Domeisen

Stratosphere–troposphere interactions are conventionally characterized using the first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) of fields such as zonal-mean zonal wind. Perpetual-winter integrations of an idealized model are used to contrast the vertical structures of EOFs with those of principal oscillation patterns (POPs; the modes of a linearized system governing the evolution of zonal flow anomalies). POP structures are shown to be insensitive to pressure weighting of the time series of interest, a factor that is particularly important for a deep system such as the stratosphere and troposphere. In contrast, EOFs change from being dominated by tropospheric variability with pressure weighting to being dominated by stratospheric variability without it. The analysis reveals separate tropospheric and stratospheric modes in model integrations that are set up to resemble midwinter variability of the troposphere and stratosphere in both hemispheres. Movies illustrating the time evolution of POP structures show the existence of a fast, propagating tropospheric mode in both integrations, and a pulsing stratospheric mode with a tropospheric extension in the Northern Hemisphere–like integration.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Yao

The dipole structure of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is examined in this study by defining the tilt of the NAO dipole centers on synoptic time scales. All the positive NAO phase (NAO+) and negative NAO phase (NAO−) events are divided into three tilting types according to their definition; namely, northeast–southwest (NE–SW), north–south symmetric (N–S, not tilted), and northwest–southeast (NW–SE) tilting NAO events. Then, the associated surface air temperature (SAT), geopotential height, zonal wind, and SST (surface sea temperature) anomalies of each type are examined. It is found that, for different asymmetric NAO tilt types, the local SATs exhibit significantly different distributions. The zonal wind has a good match with the NAO dipole tilt, which also includes the positive feedback of the NAO circulation. The basic zonal flow that removes the NAO days also exhibits a clear tilt structure that favors the tilt of the NAO dipole. Moreover, it is found that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) may be an important factor affecting the tilt of the NAO dipole. The AMO index has a significant 15-year lead for the NAO index and basic zonal flow index, with a high correlation coefficient, which might be seen as a precondition that indicates the tilt of the NAO events, especially on decadal or multidecadal time scales. However, the physical mechanisms and processes are still not fully understood.


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