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Double Tropopauses and the Tropical Belt Connected to ENSO
Author(s) -
Wilhelmsen Hallgeir,
Ladstädter Florian,
Schmidt Torsten,
Steiner Andrea K.
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl089027
Subject(s) - tropopause , troposphere , radio occultation , stratosphere , climatology , subtropics , lapse rate , quasi biennial oscillation , atmospheric sciences , extratropical cyclone , jet stream , geology , environmental science , altitude (triangle) , hotspot (geology) , jet (fluid) , physics , geophysics , ionosphere , biology , geometry , mathematics , fishery , thermodynamics
Abstract A detailed analysis of double tropopause (DT) occurrences requires vertically well resolved, accurate, and globally distributed information on the troposphere‐stratosphere transition zone. Here, we use radio occultation observations from 2001 to 2018 with such properties. We establish a connection between El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases and the distribution of DTs by analyzing the global and seasonal DT characteristics. The seasonal distribution of DTs reveals several hotspot locations, such as near the subtropical jet stream and over high mountain ranges, where DTs occur particularly often. In this study, we detect a higher number of DTs during the cold La Niña state while warmer El Niño events result in lower DT rates, affecting the structure of the tropopause region. Close to the Niño 3 region, this relates to a much lower first lapse rate tropopause altitude during La Niña and corresponds to an apparent narrowing of the tropical belt there.