Identification

Title

A case study of an elevated stratopause generated in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model

Abstract

The Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) is used to study the influence of gravity waves on the generation and evolution of an elevated stratopause following a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW). By comparing WACCM simulations of two Arctic winters, where one is dynamically undisturbed and one is disturbed, we find that intense planetary wave activity during a SSW drives the reversal of the zonal mean wind in the stratosphere. This alters the penetration of eastward propagating, non-orographic gravity waves into the mesosphere, which determine the extent of cooling in the lower mesosphere and upper stratosphere through the adiabatic effects of the gravity wave-driven residual circulation, and play a crucial role in the reformation of the elevated stratopause in the lower mesosphere. Eventually, the forcing due to gravity waves returns to normal wintertime values as the stratospheric zonal wind recovers, and is then associated with the warming and lowering of the elevated stratopause, by wave induced diabatic descent. We find that SSW followed by an elevated stratopause is a climatologically robust phenomenon in free running WACCM with characteristics closely resembling recently observed events in the Arctic.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d77p900m

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2011-04-20T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact