Evidence for a QBO signature in polar summer mesopause temperatures over Antarctica

Details Evidence for a QBO signature in polar summer mesopause temperatures over Antarctica Evidence for a QBO signature in polar summer mesopause temperatures over Antarctica

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsa43a1745v&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SA43A-1745

Physics

[3311] Atmospheric Processes / Clouds And Aerosols, [3334] Atmospheric Processes / Middle Atmosphere Dynamics

Scientific paper

We report on evidence for a QBO signature in southern polar summer mesopause temperatures that appears to be driven by the QBO signature in the northern polar vortex and transferred to the southern hemisphere via interhemispheric coupling. Measurements of polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) occurrence and chemical ozone losses in the Arctic polar vortex during the solar minimum period 2003 - 2009 with SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY) on Envisat show a pronounced inter-annual variability consistent with the established QBO-signature during solar minimum conditions. Surprisingly, we find high and statistically significant correlations between monthly averaged PSC occurrence rates in February in the northern hemisphere and noctilucent cloud (NLC) occurrence rates in February in the southern hemisphere, indicating that a cold northern polar winter stratosphere corresponds to a cold southern polar summer mesopause. This finding can be interpreted as a consequence of the recently discovered and theoretically explained inter-hemispheric coupling mechanism, coupling the polar winter stratosphere with the polar summer mesopause through different stages of dynamical modification (Becker and Fritts, 2006). Given the known QBO-effect on the stability of the northern polar vortex during solar minimum conditions in combination with the established inter-hemispheric coupling suggests that the alternating averaged NLC occurrence rates at the southern polar summer mesospause are a QBO signature. The hypothesis is further tested using the 30 year SBUV data set of noctilucent clouds/polar mesospheric clouds (a proxy for polar summer mesopause temperatures).

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