Open AccessAn ozone‐modified refractive index for vertically propagating planetary waves
Author(s) -
Nathan Terrence R.,
Cordero Eugene C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2006jd007357
Subject(s) - stratosphere , atmospheric sciences , ozone layer , troposphere , ozone , tropopause , wave drag , environmental science , physics , drag , meteorology , mechanics , drag coefficient
An ozone‐modified refractive index (OMRI) is derived for vertically propagating planetary waves using a mechanistic model that couples quasigeostrophic potential vorticity and ozone volume mixing ratio. The OMRI clarifies how wave‐induced heating due to ozone photochemistry, ozone transport, and Newtonian cooling (NC) combine to affect wave propagation, attenuation, and drag on the zonal mean flow. In the photochemically controlled upper stratosphere, the wave‐induced ozone heating (OH) always augments the NC, whereas in the dynamically controlled lower stratosphere, the wave‐induced OH may augment or reduce the NC depending on the detailed nature of the wave vertical structure and zonal mean ozone gradients. For a basic state representative of Northern Hemisphere winter, the wave‐induced OH can increase the planetary wave drag by more than a factor of two in the photochemically controlled upper stratosphere and decrease it by as much as 25% in the dynamically controlled lower stratosphere. Because the zonal mean ozone distribution appears explicitly in the OMRI, the OMRI can be used as a tool for understanding how changes in stratospheric ozone due to solar variability and chemical depletion affect stratosphere‐troposphere communication.