American Geophysical Union Become an AGU Member
Subscribe to AGU Journals		 AGU Home AGU Publications

Read Full Article (file size: 266688 bytes)    Cited by

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 108, NO. D3, 4101, doi:10.1029/2001JD002034, 2003

Systematic changes of stratospheric temperature: Relationship between the tropics and extratropics

Murry L. Salby

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Patrick F. Callaghan

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Abstract

Ozone declined over the extratropics of the Northern Hemisphere during the 1980s and 1990s. The interpretation of those systematic changes rests on the behavior of temperature, which declined simultaneously. New evidence reported here shows that systematic cooling of the wintertime stratosphere at high latitudes was accompanied by systematic warming at low latitudes. Those regions exhibit clear but opposing trends in the wintertime tendency of temperature, which is related directly to adiabatic warming and cooling. Mirrored by ozone, the compensating changes of temperature at high and low latitudes characterize a systematic weakening of the residual mean circulation, which regulates wintertime temperature and spring ozone.

Published 5 February 2003.

Index Terms: 0341 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Middle atmosphere—constituent transport and chemistry (3334); 3309 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Climatology (1620); 3334 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342); 3362 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Stratosphere/troposphere interactions.

Read Full Article (file size: 266688 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Salby, M. L., and P. F. Callaghan (2003), Systematic changes of stratospheric temperature: Relationship between the tropics and extratropics, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D3), 4101, doi:10.1029/2001JD002034.