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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Global Change: Climate variability
  • Global Change: Solar variability
  • Atmospheric Processes: Middle atmosphere dynamics

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L18805, 5 PP., 2005
doi:10.1029/2005GL023696

A new pathway for communicating the 11-year solar cycle signal to the QBO

Eugene C. Cordero

Department of Meteorology, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA

Terrence R. Nathan

Atmospheric Science Program, Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA

The response of the equatorial quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) to zonal-mean ozone perturbations consistent with the 11-year solar cycle is examined using a 2inline equation dimensional model of the tropical stratosphere. Unique to this model are wave-ozone feedbacks, which provide a new, nonlinear pathway for communicating solar variability effects to the QBO. Model simulations show that for zonal-mean ozone perturbations representative of solar maximum (minimum), the diabatic heating due to the wave-ozone feedbacks is primarily responsible for driving a slightly stronger (weaker) QBO circulation and producing a slightly shorter (longer) QBO period. These results, which are explained via an analytical analysis of the divergence of Eliassen-palm flux, are in general agreement with observations of quasi-decadal variability of the QBO.

Received 1 June 2005; accepted 18 August 2005; published 21 September 2005.

Citation: Cordero, E. C., and T. R. Nathan (2005), A new pathway for communicating the 11-year solar cycle signal to the QBO, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L18805, doi:10.1029/2005GL023696.

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