Observations and statistical simulations of a proposed solar cycle/qbo/weather relationship

The 10.7 cm solar flux is observed to be highly correlated with north pole stratospheric temperatures when partitioned according to the phase of the equatorial stratospheric winds (the quasi-biennial oscillation, or QBO) (Labitzke and van Loon, 1988a). We supplement their observations with calculations showing that temperatures over most of the northern hemisphere are highly correlated or anticorrelated with north pole temperatures. The observed spatial pattern of solar cycle correlations at high latitudes is shown to be not unique to the solar cycle. We present results similar to the observed solar cycle correlations, with simulated harmonics of various periods replacing the solar cycle. These calculations demonstrate that correlations at least as high as those for the solar cycle results may be obtained using simulated harmonics.