Dynamic interactions between the troposphere and stratosphere
Abstract
A primitive equation spectral model using spherical harmonics is formulated to study interactions between the troposphere and stratosphere in association with sudden stratospheric warming. In order to follow vertical wave propagation so important to this process, the model consists of 31 levels with 5 in the troposphere and the other 26 in the stratosphere and mesophere. Results of these integrations indicate that realistic stratospheric warmings can be simulated by simple orographic forcing; that the strength of the polar night jet can be a determining factor in whether a warming becomes "major" or "minor"; that the stratosphere plays an important role in tropospheric wave evolution; that the indirect cell mechanism is fundamental to the warming process; that large terms in the momentum and heat budgets tend to cancel, but significant changes in the zonal wind and temperature do occur if there is a slight imbalance between these terms; and that wave to wave interactions are an essential part of sudden stratospheric warnings.
- Publication:
-
Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- March 1980
- Bibcode:
- 1980PhDT........24K
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Heating;
- Dynamic Models;
- Spherical Harmonics;
- Stratosphere;
- Troposphere;
- Stratospheric Warming;
- Geophysics