ISSN:
1420-9136
Keywords:
Quasi-geostropic model
;
Statospheric sudden warming
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
Notes:
Abstract We describe a series of sensitivity experiments with a quasi-geostrophic model of the interaction of stationary planetary waves with the mean zonal flow in the stratosphere and mesosphere. The model is of the Matsuno type, which neglects wave-wave interaction and includes only a single zonal harmonic of the planetary wave spectrum in each simulation. We employed the model to investigate the source of the double-layer structure previously obtained by several authors for the stratospheric sudden warming with wavenumber one. Our results suggest that this characteristic of the model-produced warming is a property only of models without damping. When reasonable dissipation is included in the model, the double-layer structure disappears. This implies the importance of the drag parameterization in properly simulating warming events and, since the actual drag very probably is effected by breaking internal waves, it suggests that future analysis should include a specific representation of this effect. We also investigated the dependence of stratospheric warming on the structure of the zonal wind field. Our analyses show in particular that substantial reduction of the height of the polar night jet mitigates strongly against the occurrence of a sudden warming event.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00877052
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