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A note on record‐high temperatures at the northern polar stratopause in winter 1997/98
Author(s) -
von Zahn U.,
Fiedler J.,
Naujokat B.,
Langematz U.,
Krüger K.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1998gl900091
Subject(s) - stratopause , altitude (triangle) , environmental science , radiance , atmospheric sciences , climatology , polar vortex , stratosphere , polar night , observatory , atmospheric temperature , geology , mesosphere , remote sensing , physics , geometry , mathematics , astrophysics
A series of lidar temperature soundings from the ALOMAR observatory in northern Norway indicated an extreme warming of a descending stratopause in February 1998. The maximum temperature recorded during this event was +49°C at 40 km altitude. This stratospheric warming is described by means of SSU satellite radiance data and of stratospheric analyses from the Free University Berlin. Comparisons are made to a number of historical events with similar temperature observations from rocket soundings and to results from the Berlin general circulation model. It turns out that in all cases the highest stratopause temperatures occur close to the 40 km altitude level.