Circulation Changes in the Mesosphere and the Lower Thermosphere Associated with Sudden Stratospheric Warmings

Influences of sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) reach the mesosphere and the thermosphere. Recently, significant global cooling during SSWs in the thermosphere have been reported on the basis of numerical simulations. However, observational studies are insufficient for the region, so that detailed 3-dimendional structure and the dynamical mechanism are still unclear. Hence, we investigate circulation changes in the mesosphere and thermosphere along with in the stratosphere during SSWs by using TIMED/SABER satellite data and radar data. The SABER observes the atmospheric temperature field in high altitudes up to the lower thermosphere (ca. 120km). Time series of the SABER data includes tidal components, because the satellite orbit is not sun-synchronous and the local time of observation gradually decreases at a specific latitude. The perfect separation of the time series data into tidal and daily changes is difficult especially when diurnal components are amplified. Therefore, we additionally analyze the radar data at some selected stations. Resultantly, north polar temperatures during SSWs show lower thermosphere warming and mesospheric cooling along with the anti-correlated temperature changes in the wide region except over the north pole. In the presentation, we discuss further detailed features of circulation changes associated with SSWs.