Variability of the MLT Tides during September 2019 Minor Sudden Stratospheric Warming

Tidal variability in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) during September 2019 Southern hemisphere minor sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is investigated utilizing ground-based meteor radar wind observations from the equatorial, extratropical, middle, and high latitude stations and global reanalysis dataset. The polar warming is found to move from the mesosphere to the stratosphere until the peak warming day (PWD) of the SSW. The diurnal and semidiurnal tides at individual observational sites do not exhibit any consistent response during the observational interval, but a notable and consistent variability in some specific zonal wavenumber components, i.e., DW1 (migrating diurnal tide), DE3 (nonmigrating eastward wavenumber 3 diurnal tide), and SW2 (migrating semidiurnal tide) is found in the global reanalysis dataset. Incidentally, the warming event occurs during Spring equinox when a dominant seasonal change in the tidal activities generally takes place and hence seasonal variability is also obtained in the present work while identifying the SSW impact during the observational interval. It is found that the seasonal broad-scale changes in the DW1, DE3, and SW2 amplitudes can be explained by the variability in the tidal sources, i.e., water vapor, convective activity, ozone, etc during the observational period. However, the extracted small-scale variability in the global tidal modes on removing seasonal trend reveals noticeable response in connection with the warming event. The deseasoned amplitude of the DW1 significantly enhances around the PWD in most of the present latitudes. The deseasoned DE3 amplitude responds significantly in the middle atmosphere at low latitudes during the warming phase. The deseasoned SW2 exhibit clear enhancement around the PWD at all present latitudes. However, the deseasoned tidal features do not seem to correlate well with that of the source species unlike the seasonal ones that imply involvement of complex processes during the warming event, seeking further future investigations in this regard.