Title
The Effect of Zonally Asymmetric Ozone Heating on the Northern Hemisphere Winter Polar Stratosphere
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
February 2011
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
38
Issue Number
3
DOI
10.1029/2010GL045937
Disciplines
Atmospheric Sciences | Climate | Meteorology
Abstract
[1] Previous modeling studies have found significant differences in winter extratropical stratospheric temperatures depending on the presence or absence of zonally asymmetric ozone heating (ZAOH), yet the physical mechanism causing these differences has not been fully explained. The present study describes the effect of ZAOH on the dynamics of the Northern Hemisphere extratropical stratosphere using an ensemble of free-running atmospheric general circulation model simulations over the 1 December - 31 March period. We find that the simulations including ZAOH produce a significantly warmer and weaker stratospheric polar vortex in mid-February due to more frequent major stratospheric sudden warmings compared to the simulations using only zonal mean ozone heating. This is due to regions of enhanced Eliassen-Palm flux convergence found in the region between 40°N–70°N latitude and 10–0.05 hPa. These results are consistent with changes in the propagation of planetary waves in the presence of ZAOH predicted by an ozone-modified refractive index.
Recommended Citation
J. P. McCormack, T. R. Nathan, and E. C. Cordero. "The Effect of Zonally Asymmetric Ozone Heating on the Northern Hemisphere Winter Polar Stratosphere" Geophysical Research Letters (2011). https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL045937
Included in
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Comments
This article originally appeared in Geophysical Research Letters in Volume 38 Issue 3 and can be found online at this link.