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Tropospheric‐stratospheric interaction in the major warming event of January‐February 1979
Author(s) -
Quiroz Roderick S.
Publication year - 1979
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/gl006i008p00645
Subject(s) - anticyclone , troposphere , climatology , stratosphere , zonal flow (plasma) , geology , zonal and meridional , westerlies , atmospheric sciences , quasi biennial oscillation , sudden stratospheric warming , polar vortex , physics , plasma , tokamak , quantum mechanics
A succession of three reversals of the meridional gradient of mean stratospheric temperature during January‐February 1979 culminated in the reversal of the zonal mean arctic flow at the 10‐mb level. Strong tropospheric‐stratospheric interaction occurred in the form of coherent wave 1 and 2 height amplifications. The flow reversal, in late February, was due mainly to wave 2. In the first of the three temperature gradient reversals, there was an unusually strong development of the "Aleutian" anticyclone. The origins of this anticyclone are traced to the retrogression of height wave 1 in the troposphere and its superpositioning with wave 2 near the Greenwich meridian on 16 January, with continuing retrogression and strong amplification after this date along with the development of westward tilt with height and strong poleward heat transport.