On the Identification of the Downward Propagation of Arctic Stratospheric Climate Change over Recent Decades
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Ivy-2014-On the Identificatio.pdf
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Author(s)
Solomon, Susan
Thompson, David W. J.
Ivy, Diane J
Date Issued
April 2014
Journal
Journal of Climate
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
Ivy, Diane J., Susan Solomon, and David W. J. Thompson. “On the Identification of the Downward Propagation of Arctic Stratospheric Climate Change over Recent Decades.” J. Climate 27, no. 8 (April 2014): 2789–2799. © 2014 American Meteorological Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Dynamical coupling between the stratospheric and tropospheric circumpolar circulations in the Arctic has been widely documented on month-to-month and interannual time scales, but not on longer time scales. In the Antarctic, both short- and long-term coupling extending from the stratosphere to the surface has been identified. In this study, changes in Arctic temperature, geopotential height, and ozone observed since the satellite era began in 1979 are examined, comparing dynamically quiescent years in which major sudden stratospheric warmings did not occur to all years. It is shown that this approach clarifies the behavior for years without major warmings and that dynamically quiescent years are marked by a strengthening of the Arctic polar vortex over the past 30 years. The associated declines in stratospheric temperatures, geopotential height, and ozone are qualitatively similar to those obtained in the Antarctic (albeit weaker), and propagate downward into the Arctic lowermost stratosphere during late winter and early spring. In sharp contrast to the Antarctic, the strengthening of the Arctic stratospheric vortex appears to originate at a higher altitude, and the propagation to the Arctic troposphere is both very limited and confined to the uppermost troposphere, even when only dynamically quiescent years are considered in the analysis.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-13-00445.1
